Rec letters timeline

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>I'm an entering Junior right now, and I had a couple questions about getting rec letters... I kind of know 2 profs (1 sci, 1 non-sci), but for the third prof, is it ok if we don't know them too well? what should I provide them when asking for a rec letter? Would CV + transcript be good enough? I've heard some people mention giving my personal statement, but I really don't think I can finish one by the time I need to ask for rec letters. I'm taking my MCAT in jan, so until then, I'd rather concentrate on that, and then start working on the PS afterward.</p>

<p>Also, when should I ask for rec letters from my professors? I'm assuming you send the letters with the secondaries (in July/August?), so when should I actually approach the profs for letters? My school is on a quarter system, so if I don't have a third prof right now, should I be on the lookout this quarter in order to ask them in time? Or if I found a prof during my second quarter (which ends in late March), would that be OK too? Also, when i DO ask them for letters, should I tell them that I need it by May/June (because I've heard so many horror stories of profs procrastinating/forgetting and turning in the letters too late)? This way, even if they delay for an extra month, it wouldn't be too big of a deal.</p>

<p>Finally, I'm kind of confused on the whole app process (mainly the timeline and what goes into each application... like what info you put in the primaries and what info would go into the secondaries). does anyone have a good link or resource that I could look into, which would kind of give me a walk-through of the application process?</p>

<p>Thank you so much if you managed to read this through! I am very confused about all of this, and would rather not wait until it's too late to get all the info I need!</p>

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<p>Assuming you want to send your application out as soon as possible (June):</p>

<p>Feb/March-start asking professors for recs. Tell them it's due in June. That way you'll get them by July/Aug when secondaries come in. CV+ transcript is okay. Maybe a list of your EC's if they aren't all on the CV.</p>

<p>May-send your transcript to the AAMC if you don't want your third quarter's grades on there.</p>

<p>June-send your transcript to the AAMC if you do want your third quarter's grades on it (I assume your grades will come out in June); send out your primary (which will have your course grades, personal statement, and a list of your extracurriculars)</p>

<p>July/August-secondaries will come in; there's usually essays on the secondaries but usually they request no new info except recommendation letters</p>

<p>September-April-interview invitations are given out, interviews are conducted. </p>

<p>October 15th-the first date schools are allowed to give out acceptances</p>

<p>March-ish-schools must have accepted as many applicants as they have seats by this date (ie if a school has 170 seats, it must have accepted 170 people by the end of March)</p>

<p>May 15th-you are only allowed to hold one acceptance after this date but you can still get into waitlist schools</p>