<p>in general, how many prof recs do you need for med school? how many sci profs? how many non-sci profs?</p>
<p>2 science, 1 non-science is the optimal combination that will satisfy the LOR requirements at just about every med school.</p>
<p>This will vary a great deal from medical school to medical school unless you have an advising office -- if you don't, I've seen some friends go through the process needing as many as nine.</p>
<p>So can 1 of the science letters be from a PI? Or would that constitute a 4th?</p>
<p>That would be a fourth, which is almost always a good idea.</p>
<p>bdm,brm,ncg,shades,ginny (and any others who have been through it) can you explain to us how the rec thing normally proceeds in both situations a) the committee letter b) individual letters. Also, where do rec's from shadowed doctors and volunteer coordinators go, if anywhere? And what the heck is interfolio (or the other one) and how does that work?</p>
<p>The way things are looking now, these are all of the recs I can get (only a soph though, so there's some time): 2 professors (science & non-science), the assistant dean of biology, a professor who i volunteer for (not in a lab setting) and 2 PIs.</p>
<p>So....seeing as how I'm a pretty shy person and I don't like going to office hours (usually don't have questions and feel too intimidated sometimes because I don't want to make a fool of myself), can 1+ of my main letter of recs come from professors who i didn't take classes from and got to know through other means? oh yeah and my school doesn't have a premed committee.</p>
<p>1) Committee letter would be the best case scenario. For every school that I've seen (except UCSF), a committee letter will be accepted in lieu of any required LOR's. Now, your premed committee may have its own LOR requirements in order to write you the committee letter but instead of satisfying the LOR requirements of 20 medical schools, you will now only need to satisfy the LOR requirements of your committee. UCSF requires 2 LOR's from 2 instructors regardless of whether you have the committee letter or not.</p>
<p>2) If you don't have a committee, like I said, 2 science and 1 non-science instructor is best. Instructor meaning the person taught you in a course and the person should be a professor holding a phD, not a TA. Some schools will accept research supervisor's recs as "science letters" but some schools don't. It's safest to just get your science letters from actual science instructors. </p>
<p>Recs from volunteer directors, physicians you've shadowed, etc. are considered supplemental letters. Schools will usually accept up to 5-6 letters total. But, the most valuable letters will be from instructors.</p>
<p>Also, Harvard is unique in that it asks for LOR's from every single research supervisor you've had in the past.</p>
<ol>
<li>Interfolio is a letter distributing service. If your school has a premed committee that is in charge of distributing your LOR/committee letters to med schools, you won't need Interfolio. If your school doesn't have a premed committee, you will likely need to use Interfolio. </li>
</ol>
<p>Sequence of events:
1. You request a LOR from professor.
2. Professor writes LOR and sends it to Interfolio either electronically or via mail.
3. You go online to Interfolio and request that Interfolio send the letter to whatever med schools you want for a fee. This way your professors won't have to address and mail the letter to each one of your med schools.</p>
<p>You will need a certain number of letters -- at least three, and from what I've seen more than that -- to come from professors who have taught you. If they don't know you very well, then they won't write very good letters.</p>
<p>Don't get letters from shadowed physicians. I can think of exceptions, but they'd be pretty rare. (Basically, prominent alums of the school, a long-term shadowing commitment, the recommender has experience with lots of other premeds, AND you've been waitlisted at the school.)</p>
<p>For the "science" letter, would that be any BCPM professor or just the basic sciences? Common sense would say the latter, but you never know.</p>
<p>Again, some undergrads will have varying requirements; some medical schools will be rather specific. In general, BCPM should be fine.</p>
<p>Pretty much everything NCG said. The schools I applied to all received a committee letter and the three letters that I submitted to the committee for evaluation (by the way, the other letter distribution service is VirtualEvals). I asked one science professor, one non-science professor, and my research advisor submit letters, and my undergraduate school was fine with that. If I didn't have a committee letter, I probably would have stuck with two science professors and a non-science professor. But because I knew that I would have a committee letter, I had a little leeway and my research advisor knows me best.</p>
<p>All things considered, the recommendation process is a lot easier than for undergraduate school. At least I thought so. I called my schools to check that my letters were received, but at the same time, there was no real worry that they weren't. I knew that they'd been uploaded because an automated e-mail was sent to me with a list of the schools they'd been sent to as soon as the letters were available to my schools.</p>
<p>I did not apply anywhere that did not accept a committee letter and waive their individual requirements for letters of recommendation. I also did not apply anywhere that didn't accept letters from the distribution service.</p>
<p>For those who want to know medical schools' individual letter requirements, browsing through SDN I found this</a> summary that seems to be pretty solid, although I don't know if any of the schools have changed their requirements since 2005 or what exactly comprises a "personal letter".</p>