<p>I was wondering how stringent medical schools are as far as their LOR requirements. Getting solid LORs from professors is going to be difficult for me (mainly because my science classes are huge and it's difficult to get to know professors, it's getting late in the game, and because all of my upper division courses are in the social sciences and wouldn't fulfill the science/BCPM LOR), and I'm concerned about meeting each school's requirements, whether they be 2 science or 1 science + 1 non-science, etc. </p>
<p>Will schools automatically reject you/not look at your app favorably if you don't meet their requirements? Or can one get away in most cases without abiding by the requirements (i.e. I send in 1 science and 1 non-science at a school that at the least wants 2 science, and perhaps the other components of the app pull me through for an interview invite). I know to be safe I should get the 2nd science but I'm not sure that it would be good enough/worth it to send in. </p>
<p>Sorry for the double post. When schools say they want letters from science faculty, could a LOR from a PI you’ve done research with (and who advises graduate students in his/her area, and for that matter, is listed under that department’s faculty list) but you haven’t taken a class with count?</p>
<p>LORs are critically important. So is following instructions.</p>
<p>If you don’t send the minimum required number of LORs, your file will be marked “incomplete” and will never get reviewed. (And the outside of the MCAT + GPA first screening, anything else in your file won’t get looked at until it’s complete so no amount of outstanding other stuff is going to help you.)</p>
<p>As far as using your PI for LOR. One of the things a recommender is asked to address is your academic performance and how strong/weak it is in comparision to other students he/she has taught in their career. If your PI cannot address that (particularly if the PI is a research faculty and not teaching faculty and hasn’t taught undergrads in many years), then your LOR is not especially useful to the committee. </p>
<p>I personally would send 2 LOR from science profs you’ve had in class and supplement it with one from your PI (who knows you in different context than your classroom instructors have and whose LOR will address different issues than theirs will.)</p>
<p>P.S. The ‘magic’ number for LORs is typically 3, not 2. 2 from science profs, 1 from non-science profs.</p>
<p>Also some schools have other specific LOR requirements–please check the admission site for each school (or MSAR) and make sure you follow them exactly. (Look at it this way: every school can fill its class 3-4 time over with people who follow directions. Why should they waste their [review and interview] time on someone who doesn’t?)</p>
<p>You’re going to have to find some way to “connect” with some science profs…either by offering to volunteer in their labs, helping with their research or something.</p>
<p>Who knows how these professors write a LOR when you ask. Honestly, I’m a parent, not an adcom, not a professor. That goes for a few others here, so take it with a grain of salt. I suggest you ask your best-option-science professors. They might be asking their TA for insight, or they might be only writing how you did in that class (as in a grade) in comparison to everyone else. “UC-Dreams earned a A- in my first year Biology class, which averaged B+ in a class of 225. The class covered blah, blah, blah.”</p>
<p>Are these considered “strong letters,” though? A few of the professors that I plan on asking for LORs know me well due to smaller honors courses, but I doubt I could say the same thing for my genetics professor, who only knows me in the context of office hours and exam results.</p>
<p>I don’t know what the “right” answer is when it comes to large lecture classes where the profs don’t know the students. </p>
<p>My son used his AP credits to skip Gen Chem I and II and Bio I and II, so the next level classes weren’t big enough that the profs didn’t know him. His Cell Bio and Genetics classes weren’t that big. </p>
<p>Maybe one answer is that if you have to take some big Bio I and II and Gen Chem I and II big lecture classes, then take another science class that will be much smaller and try to get to know that prof.</p>