What exactly does it mean by non-science LOR?

[derrick rose]

I have 2 questions here.

1. I am a bit confused. I have heard from people that the non-science LOR needs to be a professor that is not from the faculty of science, whereas I have also heard the letter can be anyone that is not science-related (i.e. volunteering supervisor or an employer). Which one is it?

Also,

2. I am finishing a bachelor of science in Kinesiology, BUT, the degree is within the faculty of education. Logically, I thought that Kinesiology courses would be science, but its not in the faculty of science. This is also a completely different degree to recreation and health education, where students would take a bunch of sport courses like "Badminton" and they receive a bachelor of arts.

In Kinesiology, we take cellular physiology, systemic physiology, exercise physiology, motor learning, motor control, functional anatomy, etc. In addition, it is a requirement to get into the Kinesiology program through completion of a year of chemistry, year of biology, and half a year of physics. So, if I were to get LORs from professors in Kinesiology, would this count towards the science letters since it is obviously science-intensive and is a bachelor of science, despite being in the faculty of education?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[HCHopeful]

No idea on #2, sorry about that. #1 is a pretty easy answer, though.

On the website. It will say, "two letters from science faculty and one from non-science faculty" (or professors instead of faculty). I don't think I've seen one that hasn't specified. And if it isn't specified, I would, with 100% confidence, say it means professor at the university. There are generally three types of individual letters: science prof, non-science prof, and "other," which is a catch-all for employment, volunteering, etc.

 

[derrick rose]

No idea on #2, sorry about that. #1 is a pretty easy answer, though.

On the website. It will say, "two letters from science faculty and one from non-science faculty" (or professors instead of faculty). I don't think I've seen one that hasn't specified. And if it isn't specified, I would, with 100% confidence, say it means professor at the university. There are generally three types of individual letters: science prof, non-science prof, and "other," which is a catch-all for employment, volunteering, etc.

Okay, thanks!

 

[derrick rose]

Bump for #2!

 

[hellopanda123]

for #2: It really depends on every school. I got away with using a psychology professor as a science LOR. Psych is generally regarded as a social science, but the classes I took were heavily neuroscience. Most schools didn't even ask about it, but the ones that did I just explained my position and how it was a heavily neuro course as opposed to behavioral or social psych and they didn't have a problem with it. If you're comfortable, you might want to ask your LOR writer to emphasize the science-y-ness of the class.

Side note though - Some schools might give you crap for not taking the "traditional" biology courses. UCI wouldn't accept any of my psychology courses as science classes. They require one upper division biology course and refused to take my neuroscience classes as such just because they were labeled under the psychology department, no matter how much I explained the content of the courses and sent them descriptions of the course that clearly state how they are EEB or neuro-focused. I didn't have this problem with any other school.