Which of these options is better for LOR?

[piotrkol1]

My situation is that I originally graduated from the University of Arizona last May, but since my GPA was low I moved home to Wisconsin and having been taking extra classes at UW Parkside to improve my stats. Frankly, I've just never really been one to go to office hours or be really talkative during class so my options for getting solid letters were kind of limited from the get-go. I've secured my non-science letter from a foreign language instructor that I had for 3 courses at Arizona and one of my science letters will be written by my chemistry professor at Parkside. For my third letter I asked my A&P II professor from Arizona, but apparently he's since retired and has a policy of not writing letters anymore. Therefore I really only have two options if I want my second science letter to be any good:

1.) Professor who I took conservation biology with at Arizona. I was somewhat involved in class discussion, went on an extra-credit field trip, and got an A in the class.

2.) Chemistry lab instructor at Parkside (professor, not a TA). I did very well in the lab and I had more of a connection with this professor compared to the one above. However, will it look bad if I only have the one non-science letter from the school I graduated from? And are recommendations from lab courses discouraged altogether?

I've also already secured letters from a physician and my supervisor at the ambulance company that I work for. I'll be taking a molecular biology class May-June so a final option would be to cozy up with that professor and hope he can write me one in a reasonable timeframe.

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[gyngyn]

The LOE from a professor is preferable to one from a TA. Ask if he can write you a strong letter and send him the AMCAS pdf: https://www.aamc.org/download/332578/data/lettersguidelinesbrochure.pdf.

Letters from physicians are generally regarded as fluff at MD schools. There are a few schools that request a "clinical" letter. It's fine for those, apparently (AZ, Utah, Chicago Med).

DO's do love a DO letter, though.

 

[Catalystik]

My situation is that I originally graduated from the University of Arizona last May, but since my GPA was low I moved home to Wisconsin and having been taking extra classes at UW Parkside to improve my stats. Frankly, I've just never really been one to go to office hours or be really talkative during class so my options for getting solid letters were kind of limited from the get-go. I've secured my non-science letter from a foreign language instructor that I had for 3 courses at Arizona and one of my science letters will be written by my chemistry professor at Parkside. For my third letter I asked my A&P II professor from Arizona, but apparently he's since retired and has a policy of not writing letters anymore. Therefore I really only have two options if I want my second science letter to be any good:

1.) Professor who I took conservation biology with at Arizona. I was somewhat involved in class discussion, went on an extra-credit field trip, and got an A in the class.

2.) Chemistry lab instructor at Parkside (professor, not a TA). I did very well in the lab and I had more of a connection with this professor compared to the one above. However, will it look bad if I only have the one non-science letter from the school I graduated from? And are recommendations from lab courses discouraged altogether?

I've also already secured letters from a physician and my supervisor at the ambulance company that I work for. I'll be taking a molecular biology class May-June so a final option would be to cozy up with that professor and hope he can write me one in a reasonable timeframe.

You might go ahead and snag the one from Conservation Bio prof in Arizona and then also plan to cultivate the Molecular Bio prof as a backup in case the first falls through, is delayed, the prof doesn't show sufficient enthusiasm for giving you a "strong" letter of support when asked, or the second promises to be a far superior letter. There's no rush to designate which letter goes where until later in the cycle.