Too many letters of recommendation?

[justgo]

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I'm applying MD/PhD for 2012 admission. I have worked in 4 research labs for significant periods of time (1 year or more in each).

But, this will be a minimum of 8 letters if I include all that I know will be good and think tell my story. I have been looking on school websites and most say to submit between 3 and 5! But in my case, with 3 letters I could not even include all my significant research mentors. How do schools deal with this? What is the real deal on letters of recommendation? I don't want to waste my recommenders time if I'm not going to be able to use their letters. Which letters should I cut? Thanks for insight.

 

[whiteshadodw]

I'm applying MD/PhD for 2012 admission. I have worked in 4 research labs for significant periods of time (1 year or more in each). I also did two undergraduate degrees: one in science and one in humanities.

I'm working on getting letters of rec into Interfolio and already have 4 in the bucket (research mentor, research mentor, professor I was GSI/TA for, another professor I was GSI/TS for)....but I still need two more of my research mentors to submit (not a problem, they will) and was hoping to get letters from an MD for whom I worked as a phlebotomist (he has no prob writing) and my humanities thesis advisor from undergrad (he also has no problem writing).

But, this will be a minimum of 8 letters if I include all that I know will be good and think tell my story. I have been looking on school websites and most say to submit between 3 and 5! But in my case, with 3 letters I could not even include all my significant research mentors. How do schools deal with this? What is the real deal on letters of recommendation? I don't want to waste my recommenders time if I'm not going to be able to use their letters. Which letters should I cut? Thanks for insight.

if i were you, i'd pick 2-3 mentors, 1 science professor, and 1 non science. that's 5, you can of course do 2 research mentors, 2 science professors, and 1 non science. also, i'd pick the most significant research mentors by the following criteria in no particular order:

-posters/publications/awards/talks related to this lab
-how well known is this particular mentor in the scientific community
-does this mentor care about their students? (generally you can ask around the lab, and maybe ask previous students what they think. where are previous students right now? if they are at prestigious institutions then chances are the professor wrote a good letter. alternatively, some professors write about students in their in their CV. you probably won't see this in older professors, imagine having 10 pages of students in your CV)

also, it might be a good idea to ask 7 people for letters in case 1-2 don't come through with your request. also, if your pre-health committee sees a red flag, then they might not want to send a letter, so you'll have some back ups. i know this doesn't sound very respectful, but you never want to leave things to someone else.

 

[Kodiak10]

I was in a similar situation as you are and I ended up having 8 total letters of recommendation. I don't think it hurts and even though some schools have limits, when I asked admissions, they said if you submit the letters as a packet, it doesn't matter.

Also, consider the fact that you really don't know who will submit a strong letter for you and who will not. Some recommenders are not as good at writing, are more reserved in their descriptions in general, or just don't put the effort into writing a detailed letter because they are too busy.

Unless you don't know the recommender well or had a bad experience, I would say the more letters the better (within reasonable limits!), especially if they show different aspects of your personality/background.

 

[Ombret]

Most readers of these letters will read them faster than you imagine. So go ahead and send them all, don't worry about appearing to overdo it. If there is one you would PREFER to axe (mentor you didn't get along with, or something), at least you do have a free get-out-of-letter card you can play.