McGill Referees

[PanPan]

Hi,

 

I'm applying McGill medicine for fall 2010. Furthermore I'm applying to the MD/PhD program. This means that I need to get all of the info for both programs into 3 letters, rather than the usual 6. The MD/PhD program states: one letter must be a research supervisor, and must address your research potential. This will be my undergrad thesis research supervisor. No problem there.

 

I'm having trouble with the remaining two letters. The MD application website states that ideally two letters would be from faculty of your current institution. So I'm trying to accommodate that as well.

 

Here are my questions:

 

Is McGill somewhat 'prof, MD, PhD' bias. Eg. do they want to see a lot of letters behind all of your referees names?

 

Do they only care about academic style references? Or do they want the traditional personal/community/character reference as well.

 

Here who I'm choosing from:

 

1. Supervisor at research institute( Pros: recent, prestigious Cons: only work related info, not related to my institution)

2. One of my Co-Op profs (Pros: knows me personally as well--family friend. he can do academic and character Cons: haven't interacted much for ~5 years)

3. Doctor/Researcher (Pros: good for MD and MD/PhD, prestigious Cons: no knowledge of academics, just know him as friend of friend)

4. Coach (Pros: Known me for long time, captained for him, volunteered for him Cons: no prestigious titles, no academic)

 

So, if they do indeed want a personal reference, its either 2 or 4. How important are titles?

 

Or should I just do 2 an 3 and get three references all of whom are profs at my institution, but where only 1 has anything to say about stuff outside of work/academia.

 

Any advice would be great.

 

Thanks!

[future_doc]

I am only applying for the MDCM and will have one prof, one MD woho is responsbile for my EMS volunteer work and my internship Supervisor at a wellness centre for the chronic elderly, where I also continued on as a parttime employee. The EMS & Supervisor know me very well whereas the prof knows my academic ability tohrough my grades. The prfo will be giving me a virtually no name reference whereas the others can and will discuss me in depth, including my character.