<p>i have a question regarding letters of recommendation...</p>
<p>do you have to send in letters of rec. from professors or pre-health advisors, or can you get away with letters from lab advisors and pre-health advisors only? if let. recs. from professors are necessary, are there any requirements for that?</p>
<p>also, what part of the application do you send the letters in with...the AMCAS or the secondary? and one more thing, what does the AMCAS application involve...like what info does it require??</p>
<p>Most schools want actual professors at least for several of them (usually 1 or 2 science profs, a prof in your major if not science) and many will accept letters from other people who know you well.</p>
<p>My letters were from:</p>
<p>1 Bio prof
1 Sociology prof (my major)
1 Leadership prof (I TA'ed for her class)
The general manager of the restaurant I worked at
the director of the Arts & Sciences Student Ambassador program I was very involved with.</p>
<p>Each school has different requirements (Creighton wanted letters from 2 science profs and since I didn't have 2, I didn't end up finishing my secondary there), so the letters are part of the secondary app.</p>
<p>so med. schools are really strict when it comes to prereqs. and recommendations and all that? if you don't have one course or a rec. then you have to withdraw an application to that school?!</p>
<p>Yes, if you don't complete the courses they list as requirements, your application will be dropped. There was a guy in my M1 class who, I guess, claimed he would take required courses that he had yet to take when he was admitted early decision, didn't, and remained enrolled. The school found out in the first week of classes and forced him to take a leave of absence with a return dependent on him successfully completing those classes he failed to take...</p>
<p>However, I've also heard rumors that they just kicked him out completely, calling it academic dishonesty. Either way those requirements are not to be ignored.</p>
<p>1.) There is a chain of command, so to speak. Your undergraduate institution may put together what's called a "Committee Packet". If so, your school will tell you what they want, and medical schools will accept that. In other words, your undergrad school's requirements trump medical school requirements.</p>
<p>2.) If your undergraduate institution does not do this, then you are forced to comply with medical school requirements. One of my friends needed to assemble nine letters for this purpose, because the requirements do not overlap perfectly.</p>
<p>3.) In any case, however, you will need letters from a professor.</p>
<p>Exceptions to rules:</p>
<p>There are always exceptions to rules if you are truly an outstanding applicant. If you're the top MCAT score in the country, you probably have some leeway in not wanting a biology professor. If you won a Rhodes scholarship, you might not have to take that second semester of Math. If you have a Nobel Prize, then schools might be more inclined to overlook your doing physics "only" at an AP level. (I am probably exaggerating, but only slightly.)</p>
<p>(There is one area in which we are warned never to break the rules: application deadlines. I tell people that the deadlines are "nonsense" because they are dramatically too LATE. But, if, somehow, you submit your application even AFTER the deadlines, you will be rejected. This is not least because many applications are now computerized and the software will literally not let you submit them.)</p>
<p>Still, why would you want to shoot yourself in the foot like that?</p>
<p>For me, my school had a committee, but my committee required 3 letters, 2 science, 1 non-science. I ended up with my orgo II professor, my pchem II professor, and my history of terrorism professor. I figured it showed diversity, as orgo and pchem are like polar opposites, and throw in a social science/history class its nice.</p>
<p>Do you need to personally get to know your professors in order for them to write you letters of recommendations? My undergrad classes are really large and it seems at this point it will be very difficult to get to know them personally or even hold a good ten minute conversation.</p>
<p>1.) You don't "need" to, but it's a very big deal when it comes to what kind of letters they're going to write - at least for one or two of them.</p>
<p>2.) Yes, this is one of the major disadvantages of going to a large school. Seek out your lab instructors - if they are full professors - or try to take science seminars.</p>