Tweetie Bird

[Stan]

Hi Tweetie Bird,

It seems like we're in the same situation when it comes to submiting LORs. I too graduated 2 years ago, and I don't want to go back to school to get a LOR from someone that hardly knows me. Did you have to get prior permission from each school to substitute a letter? How do they keep track of these things in terms of having your file complete? Thank you for your insight

-Stan

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[CoffeeCat]

It's easiest to PM her...press the "PM"button under one of her posts.

Anyway, BUMP for Tweetie

 

[Tweetie_bird]

I've been really busy and didn't see this post, so THANK YOU CoffeeCat for bumping it up for me.

Stan,
I called each school to ask them if they are stringent on the policy. if the secretary wasn't sure, I asked for the Dean's email and emailed the dean. These Deans are really nice!!! I have never had a single dean be mean to me (yet!) no matter how trivial my questions seem to me.

Also, try and keep a copy of each one of those emails. i heard from my advisor (yes, I still have one b/c I'm alumni) that in case there's doubt, you have a copy of the email you sent and their reply to prove that 2 sciences profs may not be needed.

Hope that helps! PM me if you have any more questions.
Tweets

 

[Stan]

Thanks Tweetie Bird!
I emailed several universities today to see if I could substitute a humanities letter for my employer's letter. Hope it works.

 

[SMW]

Do you mean substitute an employer's letter for a humanities letter?

 

[Tweetie_bird]

uhhhhh, ummm....that's going to be tough to replace....but you could try nevertheless. I'm with you on this, SMW. I think he meant it the other way.

In any case, let us know how it went, Stan!!

 

[Stan]

Here's an update. (SMW I did mean to substitute an employer's letter for a humanities letter. My mistake.) I emailed Vanderbilt, Creighton, Penn State, Yale, Pittsburgh, UIC and Jefferson yesterday, and four of them replied already:

Vanderbilt: That is fine to use your employer's rec! Pat Sagen

Yale: You can most certainly ask your current employer to write a letter on your behalf. The Office of Admissions

Penn State: The letter you are referring to is a non-science faculty. It does not have to be humanities. If you cannot get this letter, please explain why on your application. You will still need to meet the four letter requirement. Thank you,
The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine

Creighton: We will accept the recommendation letter from your current employer as a required non-science recommendation.
Sincerely, Kathy Slattery


I am going to make a copy of the emails and send them to each school so my files can be completed.

-Stan

 

[Tweetie_bird]

awesome news!!! good showing.

 

[Stan]

I received a response from Pittsburgh today:

Unfortunately we are unable to grant your request. We do not grant recommendation waivers for applicants who have attended school in the past five years.

Maybe I'll have to get a non science reference after all... Hmmmm. To send in or not to send in the Pittsburgh secondary...that's the question.

-Stan

 

[Tweetie_bird]

that's interesting. what are their requirements? one sci and one non-sci?

 

[Zoobaby]

I thought Pitt was "three academic." Did they specify two sci and one non sci??

 

[Zoobaby]

Yeah, I just looked at the "Guidelines for Obtaining Letters of Recommendation" sheet from Pitt's app, it reads:

"If individual academic letters are submitted, please note that our Admissions Committee requires three. An academic letter of recommendation is one that would come from a faculty recommender who taught you in a course. In addition, credit must have been received and posted to an official transcript. Therefore, the following information is also required on the attached cover sheet: the course name, course number, professor's name, institution name and date when the course was taken."

Did I miss something somewhere else?? (That would change some things )

 

[Tweetie_bird]

this is just great. I lost my U Pitt folder that I was carrying around. Could you please tell me what else came in our app aside from those two magazines??? i don't remember any paper supplemental etc from U Pitt. i believe it's all online, so where did you get this info from?

 

[Zoobaby]

Hey Tweetie -

Yes, the secondary was all online. That info was from a printout. Just before I submitted the completed secondary, I printed out every section of it. Let me know if you need somehting and I can scan it in and email it to you (once you submit the secondary they don't let you in anymore.)

-Zoo

 

[Tweetie_bird]

you're awesome, Zoo. Thanks much.

You are right about the requirements. I just called and checked.