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Hello SDN,
I have a predicament regarding my letters of rec. I plan on applying for med school in 2024 and am currently working on gathering LORs. Out of the ones I've secured, I'm most confident in strong letters from my PI, the one from my supervisor at my EMT job, and the one from my creative writing class professor. I have also secured a letter that I don't believe will be as good from an upper division biology professor that will be a generic LordDerpulus scored an A, was Xth percentile of the class, a few personal details woven in, emphasis that my success in his class means he is confident in my success in med school, etc etc.
I need one more science letter of rec and I need your help in deciding which to pursue/ask.
I have a professor in an upper division biology lab I'm currently taking that I've formed quite a good relationship with so far that I believe could write a potentially strong LOR (I have not yet asked). However, I arrived to lab late one day, which resulted in a monstrous penalty of 8% off my total grade. I am now highly likely to receive a B or B+ (An A- is technically possible but I'd have to walk on water), and am worried she will not agree to write a strong letter of rec because of this grade. I could try to contest the decision or try to convince her to reduce the weight of the penalty but I'm not confident. Fortunately, it's still quite early in the quarter and I still have two more exams and several assignments ahead of me. If I do well on those exams, it might not be a problem in spite of a B+, but I'm not sure.
Alternatively, I could ask an Ochem professor. I had taken her class and also TA'd for her in a separate Ochem lab class, but she doesn't know me that well (I know, sounds insane, I can explain). I didn't build a strong relationship with her when I took her Ochem class but I still scored very well. This, in addition to my strong performance in ochem lab, in turn qualified me to sign up as a TA for Ochem lab class; however, the school doesn't allow undergraduates to TA for chemistry classes, so there's a special program where an undergraduate and graduate TA work together to teach the Ochem lab class. The issue is, she doesn't know me well from that either, since only the graduate TAs meet with her directly while undergraduate TAs meet with the chemistry department head. Now, I have already asked this professor if she would be willing to write a letter of recommendation and she said yes. However, she said she'd only be able to comment on the basics of my performance in her lecture class, but that she'd also work with the graduate TA partner I worked with in the lab to comment on my performance as a TA in her lab class. The really messed up part about all this is that she asked me to email her after our conversation to hash out more details, and then straight up ghosted me for the entire summer (Yes, I sent multiple follow up emails). I found her class schedule and intercepted her between classes to ask her about this, where she again reiterated that she is willing to write a letter and to email her again, but then I got ghosted for a second time (multiple follow ups again)! I've asked the graduate TA to email her yesterday to see if he has any luck but I'm actually going to go insane. (Yes I had the correct email, I checked when I met her in person)
I'm thinking I most likely won't have enough time to build up another relationship and ask another professor for a letter, as I have been burned and rejected before from asking professors after the winter quarter in March 2023, citing that they were busy with too many letters even though I was asking for a letter more than a year in advance.....
Bash me all you want. I'm sorely regretting not building better relationships with my professors earlier in my academic career, but now that that ship has sailed and these two are my best next two potential letter writers, what do you all think I should do?
For additional context, my GPA is 3.97, MCAT is 521, and I go to a really big Californian public school.
I have a predicament regarding my letters of rec. I plan on applying for med school in 2024 and am currently working on gathering LORs. Out of the ones I've secured, I'm most confident in strong letters from my PI, the one from my supervisor at my EMT job, and the one from my creative writing class professor. I have also secured a letter that I don't believe will be as good from an upper division biology professor that will be a generic LordDerpulus scored an A, was Xth percentile of the class, a few personal details woven in, emphasis that my success in his class means he is confident in my success in med school, etc etc.
I need one more science letter of rec and I need your help in deciding which to pursue/ask.
I have a professor in an upper division biology lab I'm currently taking that I've formed quite a good relationship with so far that I believe could write a potentially strong LOR (I have not yet asked). However, I arrived to lab late one day, which resulted in a monstrous penalty of 8% off my total grade. I am now highly likely to receive a B or B+ (An A- is technically possible but I'd have to walk on water), and am worried she will not agree to write a strong letter of rec because of this grade. I could try to contest the decision or try to convince her to reduce the weight of the penalty but I'm not confident. Fortunately, it's still quite early in the quarter and I still have two more exams and several assignments ahead of me. If I do well on those exams, it might not be a problem in spite of a B+, but I'm not sure.
Alternatively, I could ask an Ochem professor. I had taken her class and also TA'd for her in a separate Ochem lab class, but she doesn't know me that well (I know, sounds insane, I can explain). I didn't build a strong relationship with her when I took her Ochem class but I still scored very well. This, in addition to my strong performance in ochem lab, in turn qualified me to sign up as a TA for Ochem lab class; however, the school doesn't allow undergraduates to TA for chemistry classes, so there's a special program where an undergraduate and graduate TA work together to teach the Ochem lab class. The issue is, she doesn't know me well from that either, since only the graduate TAs meet with her directly while undergraduate TAs meet with the chemistry department head. Now, I have already asked this professor if she would be willing to write a letter of recommendation and she said yes. However, she said she'd only be able to comment on the basics of my performance in her lecture class, but that she'd also work with the graduate TA partner I worked with in the lab to comment on my performance as a TA in her lab class. The really messed up part about all this is that she asked me to email her after our conversation to hash out more details, and then straight up ghosted me for the entire summer (Yes, I sent multiple follow up emails). I found her class schedule and intercepted her between classes to ask her about this, where she again reiterated that she is willing to write a letter and to email her again, but then I got ghosted for a second time (multiple follow ups again)! I've asked the graduate TA to email her yesterday to see if he has any luck but I'm actually going to go insane. (Yes I had the correct email, I checked when I met her in person)
I'm thinking I most likely won't have enough time to build up another relationship and ask another professor for a letter, as I have been burned and rejected before from asking professors after the winter quarter in March 2023, citing that they were busy with too many letters even though I was asking for a letter more than a year in advance.....
Bash me all you want. I'm sorely regretting not building better relationships with my professors earlier in my academic career, but now that that ship has sailed and these two are my best next two potential letter writers, what do you all think I should do?
For additional context, my GPA is 3.97, MCAT is 521, and I go to a really big Californian public school.