Letters of Recommendation

Overall, I had five letters. I chose my letter writers carefully, knowing a neutral letter is not looked well upon by admissions committees. The letters were written by my research advisor whom I got to know well over two years of research, my academic advisor whom I got to know well over my academic career, a non-science professor whom I had two classes with, a science professor that I had in class and worked on research with, and my volunteer firefighting chief. I felt these were all strong letters.

Typically, it is best practice to organize these letters into a committee letter written by somebody who can synthesize them together. The single letters should be included in a packet with this committee letter. Medical schools prefer this and will ask why you did not take advantage of this if you had the opportunity. In my case, all of my academic letters were included in a committee letter and then I had the individual letter from my fire chief.