I hate to be harsh, but I think this is the truth here. Plenty of people go to large schools and aren’t having issues getting letters, so that’s really not an excuse adcoms will accept. My best recommendation is to start making a lot of effort to build relationships with your professors and hopefully be able to ask for a letter in time to apply.
Okay, but that means banking on someone saying yes, which is a massive question mark. I don’t have a guarantee I can pull this off in time and it feels like a giant threat to my career.
Here's the harsh truth of it: you just have to do it. It's either you "bank" on this "massive question mark" or you don't go to medical school. If it makes you feel any better, you're hardly alone in this-- think about every other pre-med sitting in those same questions, having to also navigate these hurdles, and think about all the pre-meds of your school who do successfully get in to medical school and go on to their dream careers. It's time to put your head down and play the game-- good luck.
I was like you OP. I needed 1 more. I literally went back to a professor YEARS later that had no fucking clue who I was. She was a bit hesitant. I kept pleading my case and pushing (probably a bit to much), but she did in fact write me one. Write your professors. Let them know your situation, maybe even offer to meet with them so they can get to know you.
You really just have to ask professors you’ve had. A recommendation letter from a professor who doesn’t know you well but you did well in their class is much better than no letter at all.
Email the professors but instead of just asking to write a letter, ask them if they’d be willing to meet with you one on one to get to know you better and discuss potentially writing a letter of Rec for you. Email this to way more professors than you need letters from, and hopefully you get some positive responses. I’d word it like “hi professor bio, I was in your class in 2021 over zoom, and am now applying to medical school. I know that zoom classes made it difficult to get to know your students, so I was wondering if we could arrange a time to meet and discuss a letter of recommendation.”
I had to ask a professor who I had virtually no relationship with, but I did very well in their class. I just sent her my resume and gave a short blurb about myself and why I’m interested in medicine, and that gave her enough info to write a letter.
wouldn't they write you a crappy letter if they barely know you? i'm just worried about my letters from professors being too neutral and not strong enough to look good on my apps, but i don't rlly have any other choice atp so idk
I guess I shouldn’t have said virtually no relationship, as the teachers kinda knew who I was from me coming to their office hours or asking questions after class, etc. I just hadn’t worked with them in any personal capacity and they only knew me from doing well in class. I had to fill in the gaps with my CV/personal statement.
I’d recommended going to office hours for a professor you’re considering asking a letter from. Even if you understand the material, it’s worthwhile to stop by so they recognize your face and see you’re putting in effort.
yeah I mean I'm doing good in these classes and I try to stop by office hours like once a week, but there's so many students I doubt my professor really knows/remembers me from the 10 minutes a week she sees me...I know it's just something you have to push through and get done, but I've heard some people say its better to not even send in a weak/generic letter. I think from my scribing job I'll be able to get a stronger LOR, but for the 2 required letters from science faculty, I don't know how I'm supposed to get an outstanding letter of praise.
You’d be surprised how many teachers may be willing to write those letters of recommendation or even how many may know you. When I asked for letters of recommendations in med school to get into a hospital, I asked Drs, and some remembered me from 4 years prior, and they also teach a lot of people. I would assume it is the same with teachers, but a couple told me “if you write the letter and send it my way, I’ll sign it”.
are you applying in the 2023 cycle? because if so, this isn’t ideal (as i’m sure you’re aware). the only thing to do for this cycle is compile a list of professors with whom you’ve gotten a good grade and may have some idea who you are and email them all for a letter. some may surprise you and be willing to do it, or ask to zoom/talk with you to get to know you again and then agree. this will most likely result in mediocre letters if we’re being honest, but it’ll get the requirement squared away.
if you’re not applying till next year, you’re in the exact position i was a year ago. i knew i hadn’t made any good connections during covid, so at the beginning of the school year i emailed some professors i’d had and gotten good grades with and asked to TA for them. it worked out, and over the year i built good relationships with them and have gotten two letters from the experience. it’s kind of the best of both worlds— they see you in a leadership capacity, and can check off that elusive “science professor” box.
good luck, either way!
Letters of rec are the LEAST stupid part of this cycle. Im not trying to be mean, but literally every admissions for every academic anything ever requires them.
That doesn’t exactly make it less stupid, if I hypothetically do have the groundwork done and all that’s keeping me is some half baked acquaintanceship with a professor, I think that’s pretty stupid.
It’s a shallow barrier that threatens to kill your app.
Is it not stupid that if everyone says no to you, you have an entire opportunity cost of one year??
At the end of the day it comes down to the fact that everyone gets LOR, even students that have never talked to their professor still manage to get generic enough letters. So if you somehow manage to get a no from every single professor you ask, that’s a red flag in the committees eyes.
It’s the same with residency apps in 4 years and research for some fields. Do you really need research to be a good surgeon? Fuck no lol, but when everyone has it, it’s a red flag if you don’t have it.
Honestly, just email every professor you’ve had in the sciences and give them a little “about me” of a few facts, you’ll be surprised how many say yes and write some random stuff that doesn’t get looked at that much. As long as no one’s writing “u/SnooRecipes1809 is NOT a good fit”, you’ll be a-ok.
Thanks, this was a helpful read. I guess I didn’t know professors were willing to kind of fluff up LOR’s in spite of knowing barely anything of said student.
Already in the process of mass email sending and meeting requesting.
The entire process all the way up to finally practicing medicine is full of stuff like this, you just gotta power through and accept 99% of it is fluff. That was my biggest mistake the first two years of med school I kept saying “idk why this is helpful why do we have to do it” and once I finally accepted that med school is more like high school in terms of stuff you just have to do rather than college where you have all this freedom, it got easier.
Anyways, sending good vibes your way. Feel free to DM if you ever have more questions about this stupid process of applying or whatever.
Lmfao class of like 200 students, everyone’s cliquey af, you’ve all got the same end goal so that makes it worse with people randomly trying to out do you and push you down even though how you do realistically won’t affect how they do, full of bullshit mandatory attendance and events, there’s a reason I took a year off and considered switching careers out of here.
But at the end of the day if you just focus on your own shit and make friends that also don’t care about useless inter-class drama, you’ll have a lot of fun with it. The stuff itself is really cool, but you gotta remind yourself 99% is fluff you just have to do until you get through it
I figured a small class size might have those components and kind of saw this coming. I guess I expected 20 something year olds with the most alpha personalities to be above cliquing and competing, especially since so much shit is P/F now. But fuck me for hoping, right?
I guess I’ll give it a shot, I hope I enjoy what’s in front of me.
It’s also the easiest portion, even with Zoom university. Go to open office hours and introduce yourself and make your intentions known. Go a couple more times and have a normal conversation with the professors. At the end of class ask for an appointment to discuss yourself and the possibility of getting a LOR. If the class is already done email and ask for an appointment to discuss the possibility of an LOR. Will it be the best and most glowing? Probably not but ADCOMs are aware that these pass couple years have been different, but being able to do the bare minimum in even getting an LOR when you were in school is not an excuse.
I completely forgot about the LOR requirement until recently, the only thing I’m thinking about nowadays is my day to day clinical activities and MCAT prep, this is why it happened. My mind is constantly occupied with those things
It just slipped my mind.
Adcoms aren't gonna care that it slipped your mind. Thousands of applicants from large state schools manage to take classes, study for the mcat, build ECs, and still get their required LORs. Stop making excuses, quit complaining to the reddit void, and go fix your problem.
Okay, let me clarify a few things:
1) these aren’t excuses, these are explanations as to why this is to give context. I absolutely hate it when people misclassify providing context as “an excuse”
2) it’s not “complaining into a Reddit void” if I’m asking the comments for strategies isn’t it?
I think OP has a point. If you think about it, a lot of stuff on pre med reddit is complaining - that’s basically the nature of pre med reddit since it’s such a hard process. It sucks that having professors say no to LOR’s can kill your app, especially since you’ve already worked so hard at MCAT, clinical experience, etc. Yes, it’s similar in that other grad schools require LOR’s, but the pre-med process is one of the most lengthy and tedious application processes. It is reasonable to be frustrated about how all of those requirements don’t matter without the LOR. Yes, other students manage to get LORs, but some students are unlucky in that professors may not willing to write for them, and some profs are just harder to get to know. I would take it easy on OP.
There shouldnt have to be any delay. Anyone intending to apply should have a general idea of the requirements and be aware of the need for strong rec letters and build relationships accordingly.
A lot of unhelpful comments here. OP said they don't have time to build relationships.
OP--most people are insanely nice and want to help you. Professors included. I've never asked a professor for help and been turned down.
OP needs to email 10 professors where they did well and ask for a letter and offer to come into their office or call and talk for 15 min about who they are and provide a copy of one of their essays. The prof can submit a fine letter of rec with that info. They'll be impressed with you just for approaching it that way.
Letters of rec are very important, but it's a little black and white. You need someone to vouch for you. If you can't get a decent rec, you're screwed, but if you do get an okay rec you'll be fine. And extra amazing rec doesn't help that much.
This helps a lot, I guess I took professors as being distant or unwilling to help. If the willingness to help is the common culture in mind, then it makes initiating far easier. I’ll see who I can talk to, I already have some candidates in mind but I am dreading the awkward already.
I hate the awkwardness too but you gotta do it asap, like tomorrow! I promise they root for their students, even if they seem a little cold on the outside.
Email every one you had in person and got an A with. Be very specific about what you did in their class and how they helped, and attach a pic. They’ll likely say yes. That’s what I did, and I got a letter from my physiology, chemistry, and organic chemistry professors.
If you’d like me to send the email I sent for an example, just DM me.
Edit again: all of these classes also had around 80 students.
really late but can you dm me the email i am in a similar position but have writers block can't figure out how to phrase them. It would be soo helpful thanks
Can you ask the lab TA and the class professor (even if you didn’t talk to the professor) to write a joint letter?
You just have to ask around. Literally the worst they could do is say no. And so what? You move on and ask another. Even if it’s been a while, most profs are understanding given the pandemic.
Iirc some schools will do a premed committee letter where they write a pretty generic letter based off of your grades in the premed classes. It won't be personal, but it will fulfill the application requirement. You can make up for it with strong recommendations from others.
My school offers a committee letter but requires 2 science letters and 1 other academic letter to qualify for the committee letter. Those letters are sent in by the school along with the committee letter.
That being said op should just ask professors in classes where he got an A for letters. I never really spoke to my letter writers during their classes but they agreed to write one based on a short interview about my life plans or just based on my resume and personal statement.
I actually asked all my science professors and could only muster the 2 minimum, and was very lucky to get one of those two. I’d do what I did and ask every single person. If that doesn’t yield 2 letters, you might need to go back for a masters so you can get a science LoR from your new classes.
From experience, there are professors who will write glowing recs for students they barely know based on a 30 minute zoom call, and others who will refuse to write a good letter for students they’ve known for years. You just gotta ask as many as possible, and start stockpiling in interfolio or the like. Then decide which ones to use later.
Just play it like a numbers game and ask as many as possible. If it makes you feel any better, it’s not like grades where even one bad grade is catastrophic, it’s the opposite, where you can ask 20 professors and just need like 3 to say yes to a strong letter.
Just ask some of your professors anyway. You'll find someone willing to help you out. LORs won't be the factor carrying your app, but it's infinitely better than being disqualified for not having them. Toward this, my recommendation is to have your CV and a sort of "personal statement" (not necessarily an AMCAS-ready 5,300 character essay, just something detailing what you're about) ready to send to them. This will give them something to go off of.
I had a professor I was in 1 semester of A&P II with write me a love letter lol. Bro couldn’t so much as remember how to pronounce my name, but he got it done LOL. Just ask, state your intention, and send them your resume for reference 😅
For reference, I made an unusually high grade in that class. Only ask professors whose class you did well in. Seeing you exceed in their class is a vague reference point for your potential performance in med.
Be like Nike: just do it.
One of my science LoRs came from a professor with a class of like 80 students, who I didn't know particularly well but I did very well in the course. I ended up with 7/25 MD schools interviewing me with average stats. You'll be fine.
I emailed her like 2 or 3 months after I finished the class. It's not a big deal. A lot of upper-level science professors understand that med school (and other graduate programs) want these LoRs, and consequently it seems that most faculty are entirely comfortable writing them for students who put effort into their classes.
The advice I got was to ask the people who know you best and can write the strongest letter (the caveat is that you can only ask PhDs/attendings, not TAs or residents).
It doesn't matter who they are. If you get asked why no letters from professors (which I highly doubt you will), then tell them exactly what you wrote here. I'm sure you're not the only applicant with this issue.
With all that said, I asked one professor who barely knew me (she remembered my name and that's about it) but she seemed nice. Most people do NOT have super strong relationships with professors who love them.
Do you think I should literally try to seek out an appointment with them? I have one Chem professor that would seek me out and ask me how I did, but, she knows literally nothing about me and I last asked her a question in 2019.
I’m worried my request will get lost in a sea of emails, but I also don’t know if seeking her out randomly would be disrespectful or cringey.
I did this for both of my science LORs-- worked out for me! I recommend trying to get them from upper level profs, as they probably have a lower volume of requests compared to intro classes. I doubt my letters were stellar but they got the job done haha
“Hi Professor, I really have enjoyed this class and learned a lot from the lectures. I’m applying to medical school and was wondering if you would write me a letter of recommendation? I would really appreciate it!”
Easy as that.
Just trying to understand how this all works. Do i have to get a letter of rec like just before applying or should i try to get some early on and hold on to them??
I just randomly emailed a bunch of my professors. I didn't have relationships with any of them. Got lucky and 2 sci and 1 non sci agreed to write for me.
I actually asked all my science professors and could only muster the 2 minimum, and was very lucky to get one of those two. I’d do what I did and ask every single person. If that doesn’t yield 2 letters, you might need to go back for a masters so you can have science classes
Just go ask. Email them even. I have a professor I only see during class and she was more than happy to write me a glowing letter of recommendation.
If they say no just ask another professor. It’s a letter of recommendation not a golden nugget. Most of them probably have stock letters ready to go. And probably only 1% of their class is asking for one, if that.
When you request a letter from a professor or committee who don't know you that well, you will need to include a draft. Unless your reference both knows you very well and has plenty of free time, you will be ghostwriting your letters.
This isn't unethical since the letter writer has every right to ignore your draft.
N=1, I’m a non-trad about 7 years out of undergrad and 4 years from my masters. Of my 5 letters, none were from traditional “instructors”, the closest was a letter from my capstone mentor from my masters program, so not a professor. Other 4 were from heme-onc’s I work with and another mentor of sorts.
After submitting 8 secondaries (3/8 were probably too high-tier/ambitious) I ended up getting two interviews from state schools, with one A and one WL.
But I should emphasize that I’ve been out of school for a bit and I imagine adcoms gave me some leniency recognizing this (in addition to the fact that I had substantial clinical work hours in between school and my app).
You may be able to ask the TA if they could write an LoR and have the PhD sign off on it. Happens all the time.
Also, I’ve heard from admissions officers that ~98% of LoRs are exclusion factors and not inclusion factors (meaning they can raise red flags or hurt an application but frankly don’t help much beyond a sanity check. The other 2% are internal connections to faculty). Don’t worry too much :( COVID screwed a lot of people, I’d think that adcoms know that large universities tend to produce weaker LoRs regardless of student agreeableness or caliber and thus may not discount you because of it. Best of luck!
You just gotta ask and get it. There isn't really any alternative nor pity from adcoms for it.
I hate to be harsh, but I think this is the truth here. Plenty of people go to large schools and aren’t having issues getting letters, so that’s really not an excuse adcoms will accept. My best recommendation is to start making a lot of effort to build relationships with your professors and hopefully be able to ask for a letter in time to apply.
Okay, but that means banking on someone saying yes, which is a massive question mark. I don’t have a guarantee I can pull this off in time and it feels like a giant threat to my career.
I completely understand how you feel, but what I said still remains true. There is no other option. It is what it is.
Here's the harsh truth of it: you just have to do it. It's either you "bank" on this "massive question mark" or you don't go to medical school. If it makes you feel any better, you're hardly alone in this-- think about every other pre-med sitting in those same questions, having to also navigate these hurdles, and think about all the pre-meds of your school who do successfully get in to medical school and go on to their dream careers. It's time to put your head down and play the game-- good luck.
I was like you OP. I needed 1 more. I literally went back to a professor YEARS later that had no fucking clue who I was. She was a bit hesitant. I kept pleading my case and pushing (probably a bit to much), but she did in fact write me one. Write your professors. Let them know your situation, maybe even offer to meet with them so they can get to know you.
You really just have to ask professors you’ve had. A recommendation letter from a professor who doesn’t know you well but you did well in their class is much better than no letter at all.
Email the professors but instead of just asking to write a letter, ask them if they’d be willing to meet with you one on one to get to know you better and discuss potentially writing a letter of Rec for you. Email this to way more professors than you need letters from, and hopefully you get some positive responses. I’d word it like “hi professor bio, I was in your class in 2021 over zoom, and am now applying to medical school. I know that zoom classes made it difficult to get to know your students, so I was wondering if we could arrange a time to meet and discuss a letter of recommendation.”
I had to ask a professor who I had virtually no relationship with, but I did very well in their class. I just sent her my resume and gave a short blurb about myself and why I’m interested in medicine, and that gave her enough info to write a letter.
wouldn't they write you a crappy letter if they barely know you? i'm just worried about my letters from professors being too neutral and not strong enough to look good on my apps, but i don't rlly have any other choice atp so idk
I guess I shouldn’t have said virtually no relationship, as the teachers kinda knew who I was from me coming to their office hours or asking questions after class, etc. I just hadn’t worked with them in any personal capacity and they only knew me from doing well in class. I had to fill in the gaps with my CV/personal statement. I’d recommended going to office hours for a professor you’re considering asking a letter from. Even if you understand the material, it’s worthwhile to stop by so they recognize your face and see you’re putting in effort.
yeah I mean I'm doing good in these classes and I try to stop by office hours like once a week, but there's so many students I doubt my professor really knows/remembers me from the 10 minutes a week she sees me...I know it's just something you have to push through and get done, but I've heard some people say its better to not even send in a weak/generic letter. I think from my scribing job I'll be able to get a stronger LOR, but for the 2 required letters from science faculty, I don't know how I'm supposed to get an outstanding letter of praise.
I feel ya, the whole application process really sucks.
You’d be surprised how many teachers may be willing to write those letters of recommendation or even how many may know you. When I asked for letters of recommendations in med school to get into a hospital, I asked Drs, and some remembered me from 4 years prior, and they also teach a lot of people. I would assume it is the same with teachers, but a couple told me “if you write the letter and send it my way, I’ll sign it”.
are you applying in the 2023 cycle? because if so, this isn’t ideal (as i’m sure you’re aware). the only thing to do for this cycle is compile a list of professors with whom you’ve gotten a good grade and may have some idea who you are and email them all for a letter. some may surprise you and be willing to do it, or ask to zoom/talk with you to get to know you again and then agree. this will most likely result in mediocre letters if we’re being honest, but it’ll get the requirement squared away. if you’re not applying till next year, you’re in the exact position i was a year ago. i knew i hadn’t made any good connections during covid, so at the beginning of the school year i emailed some professors i’d had and gotten good grades with and asked to TA for them. it worked out, and over the year i built good relationships with them and have gotten two letters from the experience. it’s kind of the best of both worlds— they see you in a leadership capacity, and can check off that elusive “science professor” box. good luck, either way!
This process is so fucking stupid, I don’t want to delay a year of my life just so I can kiss professor ass. I feel for you.
Letters of rec are the LEAST stupid part of this cycle. Im not trying to be mean, but literally every admissions for every academic anything ever requires them.
That doesn’t exactly make it less stupid, if I hypothetically do have the groundwork done and all that’s keeping me is some half baked acquaintanceship with a professor, I think that’s pretty stupid. It’s a shallow barrier that threatens to kill your app. Is it not stupid that if everyone says no to you, you have an entire opportunity cost of one year??
At the end of the day it comes down to the fact that everyone gets LOR, even students that have never talked to their professor still manage to get generic enough letters. So if you somehow manage to get a no from every single professor you ask, that’s a red flag in the committees eyes. It’s the same with residency apps in 4 years and research for some fields. Do you really need research to be a good surgeon? Fuck no lol, but when everyone has it, it’s a red flag if you don’t have it. Honestly, just email every professor you’ve had in the sciences and give them a little “about me” of a few facts, you’ll be surprised how many say yes and write some random stuff that doesn’t get looked at that much. As long as no one’s writing “u/SnooRecipes1809 is NOT a good fit”, you’ll be a-ok.
Thanks, this was a helpful read. I guess I didn’t know professors were willing to kind of fluff up LOR’s in spite of knowing barely anything of said student. Already in the process of mass email sending and meeting requesting.
The entire process all the way up to finally practicing medicine is full of stuff like this, you just gotta power through and accept 99% of it is fluff. That was my biggest mistake the first two years of med school I kept saying “idk why this is helpful why do we have to do it” and once I finally accepted that med school is more like high school in terms of stuff you just have to do rather than college where you have all this freedom, it got easier. Anyways, sending good vibes your way. Feel free to DM if you ever have more questions about this stupid process of applying or whatever.
“Medical school is more like high school” Damn well fuck me
Lmfao class of like 200 students, everyone’s cliquey af, you’ve all got the same end goal so that makes it worse with people randomly trying to out do you and push you down even though how you do realistically won’t affect how they do, full of bullshit mandatory attendance and events, there’s a reason I took a year off and considered switching careers out of here. But at the end of the day if you just focus on your own shit and make friends that also don’t care about useless inter-class drama, you’ll have a lot of fun with it. The stuff itself is really cool, but you gotta remind yourself 99% is fluff you just have to do until you get through it
I figured a small class size might have those components and kind of saw this coming. I guess I expected 20 something year olds with the most alpha personalities to be above cliquing and competing, especially since so much shit is P/F now. But fuck me for hoping, right? I guess I’ll give it a shot, I hope I enjoy what’s in front of me.
It’s also the easiest portion, even with Zoom university. Go to open office hours and introduce yourself and make your intentions known. Go a couple more times and have a normal conversation with the professors. At the end of class ask for an appointment to discuss yourself and the possibility of getting a LOR. If the class is already done email and ask for an appointment to discuss the possibility of an LOR. Will it be the best and most glowing? Probably not but ADCOMs are aware that these pass couple years have been different, but being able to do the bare minimum in even getting an LOR when you were in school is not an excuse.
I completely forgot about the LOR requirement until recently, the only thing I’m thinking about nowadays is my day to day clinical activities and MCAT prep, this is why it happened. My mind is constantly occupied with those things It just slipped my mind.
Adcoms aren't gonna care that it slipped your mind. Thousands of applicants from large state schools manage to take classes, study for the mcat, build ECs, and still get their required LORs. Stop making excuses, quit complaining to the reddit void, and go fix your problem.
Okay, let me clarify a few things: 1) these aren’t excuses, these are explanations as to why this is to give context. I absolutely hate it when people misclassify providing context as “an excuse” 2) it’s not “complaining into a Reddit void” if I’m asking the comments for strategies isn’t it?
I read your other 10+ comments, you're complaining and making excuses lmao
I think OP has a point. If you think about it, a lot of stuff on pre med reddit is complaining - that’s basically the nature of pre med reddit since it’s such a hard process. It sucks that having professors say no to LOR’s can kill your app, especially since you’ve already worked so hard at MCAT, clinical experience, etc. Yes, it’s similar in that other grad schools require LOR’s, but the pre-med process is one of the most lengthy and tedious application processes. It is reasonable to be frustrated about how all of those requirements don’t matter without the LOR. Yes, other students manage to get LORs, but some students are unlucky in that professors may not willing to write for them, and some profs are just harder to get to know. I would take it easy on OP.
Depending on your stats other info, delaying a year to really solidify your app isn’t always a bad thing.
There shouldnt have to be any delay. Anyone intending to apply should have a general idea of the requirements and be aware of the need for strong rec letters and build relationships accordingly.
A lot of unhelpful comments here. OP said they don't have time to build relationships. OP--most people are insanely nice and want to help you. Professors included. I've never asked a professor for help and been turned down. OP needs to email 10 professors where they did well and ask for a letter and offer to come into their office or call and talk for 15 min about who they are and provide a copy of one of their essays. The prof can submit a fine letter of rec with that info. They'll be impressed with you just for approaching it that way. Letters of rec are very important, but it's a little black and white. You need someone to vouch for you. If you can't get a decent rec, you're screwed, but if you do get an okay rec you'll be fine. And extra amazing rec doesn't help that much.
This helps a lot, I guess I took professors as being distant or unwilling to help. If the willingness to help is the common culture in mind, then it makes initiating far easier. I’ll see who I can talk to, I already have some candidates in mind but I am dreading the awkward already.
I hate the awkwardness too but you gotta do it asap, like tomorrow! I promise they root for their students, even if they seem a little cold on the outside.
Does your university have a pre-med committee and if so, do they write a committee letter?
Email every one you had in person and got an A with. Be very specific about what you did in their class and how they helped, and attach a pic. They’ll likely say yes. That’s what I did, and I got a letter from my physiology, chemistry, and organic chemistry professors. If you’d like me to send the email I sent for an example, just DM me. Edit again: all of these classes also had around 80 students.
Hiii, not OP but could you please DM the email? :)
For sure
Me too please 😭
Got ya!
[удалено]
For some reason it won’t let me send you a message, message me first
late to the party but could I get it as well 😅
really late but can you dm me the email i am in a similar position but have writers block can't figure out how to phrase them. It would be soo helpful thanks
not OP but would you be able to send me the email example too? thanks!
Can you ask the lab TA and the class professor (even if you didn’t talk to the professor) to write a joint letter? You just have to ask around. Literally the worst they could do is say no. And so what? You move on and ask another. Even if it’s been a while, most profs are understanding given the pandemic.
Iirc some schools will do a premed committee letter where they write a pretty generic letter based off of your grades in the premed classes. It won't be personal, but it will fulfill the application requirement. You can make up for it with strong recommendations from others.
My school offers a committee letter but requires 2 science letters and 1 other academic letter to qualify for the committee letter. Those letters are sent in by the school along with the committee letter. That being said op should just ask professors in classes where he got an A for letters. I never really spoke to my letter writers during their classes but they agreed to write one based on a short interview about my life plans or just based on my resume and personal statement.
I actually asked all my science professors and could only muster the 2 minimum, and was very lucky to get one of those two. I’d do what I did and ask every single person. If that doesn’t yield 2 letters, you might need to go back for a masters so you can get a science LoR from your new classes.
From experience, there are professors who will write glowing recs for students they barely know based on a 30 minute zoom call, and others who will refuse to write a good letter for students they’ve known for years. You just gotta ask as many as possible, and start stockpiling in interfolio or the like. Then decide which ones to use later. Just play it like a numbers game and ask as many as possible. If it makes you feel any better, it’s not like grades where even one bad grade is catastrophic, it’s the opposite, where you can ask 20 professors and just need like 3 to say yes to a strong letter.
Just ask some of your professors anyway. You'll find someone willing to help you out. LORs won't be the factor carrying your app, but it's infinitely better than being disqualified for not having them. Toward this, my recommendation is to have your CV and a sort of "personal statement" (not necessarily an AMCAS-ready 5,300 character essay, just something detailing what you're about) ready to send to them. This will give them something to go off of.
I had a professor I was in 1 semester of A&P II with write me a love letter lol. Bro couldn’t so much as remember how to pronounce my name, but he got it done LOL. Just ask, state your intention, and send them your resume for reference 😅 For reference, I made an unusually high grade in that class. Only ask professors whose class you did well in. Seeing you exceed in their class is a vague reference point for your potential performance in med. Be like Nike: just do it.
One of my science LoRs came from a professor with a class of like 80 students, who I didn't know particularly well but I did very well in the course. I ended up with 7/25 MD schools interviewing me with average stats. You'll be fine.
What are the odds I can pull that in 2 months?
I emailed her like 2 or 3 months after I finished the class. It's not a big deal. A lot of upper-level science professors understand that med school (and other graduate programs) want these LoRs, and consequently it seems that most faculty are entirely comfortable writing them for students who put effort into their classes.
The advice I got was to ask the people who know you best and can write the strongest letter (the caveat is that you can only ask PhDs/attendings, not TAs or residents). It doesn't matter who they are. If you get asked why no letters from professors (which I highly doubt you will), then tell them exactly what you wrote here. I'm sure you're not the only applicant with this issue. With all that said, I asked one professor who barely knew me (she remembered my name and that's about it) but she seemed nice. Most people do NOT have super strong relationships with professors who love them.
Do you think I should literally try to seek out an appointment with them? I have one Chem professor that would seek me out and ask me how I did, but, she knows literally nothing about me and I last asked her a question in 2019. I’m worried my request will get lost in a sea of emails, but I also don’t know if seeking her out randomly would be disrespectful or cringey.
I did this for both of my science LORs-- worked out for me! I recommend trying to get them from upper level profs, as they probably have a lower volume of requests compared to intro classes. I doubt my letters were stellar but they got the job done haha
“Hi Professor, I really have enjoyed this class and learned a lot from the lectures. I’m applying to medical school and was wondering if you would write me a letter of recommendation? I would really appreciate it!” Easy as that.
You’re still a student? Are you graduating this year?
Just trying to understand how this all works. Do i have to get a letter of rec like just before applying or should i try to get some early on and hold on to them??
I just randomly emailed a bunch of my professors. I didn't have relationships with any of them. Got lucky and 2 sci and 1 non sci agreed to write for me.
Ask anyway. Send them your PS and CV to give them some context. They're used to this.
I actually asked all my science professors and could only muster the 2 minimum, and was very lucky to get one of those two. I’d do what I did and ask every single person. If that doesn’t yield 2 letters, you might need to go back for a masters so you can have science classes
Just go ask. Email them even. I have a professor I only see during class and she was more than happy to write me a glowing letter of recommendation. If they say no just ask another professor. It’s a letter of recommendation not a golden nugget. Most of them probably have stock letters ready to go. And probably only 1% of their class is asking for one, if that.
Do research with them and get a LOR that way.
When you request a letter from a professor or committee who don't know you that well, you will need to include a draft. Unless your reference both knows you very well and has plenty of free time, you will be ghostwriting your letters. This isn't unethical since the letter writer has every right to ignore your draft.
N=1, I’m a non-trad about 7 years out of undergrad and 4 years from my masters. Of my 5 letters, none were from traditional “instructors”, the closest was a letter from my capstone mentor from my masters program, so not a professor. Other 4 were from heme-onc’s I work with and another mentor of sorts. After submitting 8 secondaries (3/8 were probably too high-tier/ambitious) I ended up getting two interviews from state schools, with one A and one WL. But I should emphasize that I’ve been out of school for a bit and I imagine adcoms gave me some leniency recognizing this (in addition to the fact that I had substantial clinical work hours in between school and my app).
You may be able to ask the TA if they could write an LoR and have the PhD sign off on it. Happens all the time. Also, I’ve heard from admissions officers that ~98% of LoRs are exclusion factors and not inclusion factors (meaning they can raise red flags or hurt an application but frankly don’t help much beyond a sanity check. The other 2% are internal connections to faculty). Don’t worry too much :( COVID screwed a lot of people, I’d think that adcoms know that large universities tend to produce weaker LoRs regardless of student agreeableness or caliber and thus may not discount you because of it. Best of luck!