Should I Take This Letter? (LOR)

[WhizoMD]

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I'm going to get a committee letter, but my school requires letters from 2 science faculty and a doctor in order to get one. I have 1 person that I'm sure will write me a very strong faculty letter, but for my other one the professor doesn't even remember me and he said his letters are usually short and standardized (how I did, comments on PS etc.). Should I take his letter? I know it won't be a great letter, but it's not going to be bad either. I can also get a strong letter from an English professor, and I had a doctor offer to write me a good one, so the professor's letter would be there simply to meet the committee requirement; I'm just wondering if it'll have a negative impact on my application as a whole...

 

[Long Way to Go]

I'm going to get a committee letter, but my school requires letters from 2 science faculty and a doctor in order to get one. I have 1 person that I'm sure will write me a very strong faculty letter, but for my other one the professor doesn't even remember me and he said his letters are usually short and standardized (how I did, comments on PS etc.). Should I take his letter? I know it won't be a great letter, but it's not going to be bad either. I can also get a strong letter from an English professor, and I had a doctor offer to write me a good one, so the professor's letter would be there simply to meet the committee requirement; I'm just wondering if it'll have a negative impact on my application as a whole...

Why not take all four, if your committee really requires two science professor recommendations (a silly requirement on the part of both med schools and your committee, but I'm digressing)?

 

[addo]

Take the letter. Although you want to have good letters, they dont necessarily need to be brilliant to get into med school or have your committee give you a good recommendation.

One of the letters I got was from a professor who wouldnt recognize me if bumped into him outside class. However, I needed one more letter, and i got the highest overall grade in a very difficult class that professor taught. So he said good things about that, and about my personal statement.

 

[NickNaylor]

Mediocre is not necessarily positive. I've heard from many advisors, admissions staff, etc. that a mediocre letter is a negative.

I would try and find someone else.

 

[BenjaminT]

Obviously it's not ideal, but I'm assuming you don't have ANY other science professors to get a letter from, and since you need one you don't have a choice.

Basically, if you can't change it don't stress over it. Shouldn't be that big of a deal.

 

[BADMD]

Mediocre is not necessarily positive. I've heard from many advisors, admissions staff, etc. that a mediocre letter is a negative.

I would try and find someone else.

👍 I can't speak about getting into medical school, but from the residency application process, a ho-hum letter can be devastating.