Can I Use a High School Mentor for Med School LORs, and When Is That Acceptable?

Can I Use a High School Mentor for Med School LORs, and When Is That Acceptable?

You’ve got a mentor from high school who changed your life. They know you better than almost anyone. So can you use them for a medical school letter of recommendation—or will that quietly hurt your application?

Here’s the blunt answer:
For most applicants, using a high school mentor as a primary letter writer for medical school is a bad idea. But there are a few very specific situations where it can work—and occasionally even help you.

Let’s walk through where the line actually is, not the vague folklore you hear on Reddit.

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What Med Schools Actually Expect From LORs

Start here or you’ll get this wrong.

Medical schools don’t just want “great letters.” They want specific types of letters that prove you can handle upper‑level academics and professional work now, not four or eight years ago.

Most MD/DO programs expect some version of this:

• 2 science faculty letters (biology, chemistry, physics, math—sometimes statistics counts)
• 1 non‑science faculty letter (humanities, social sciences, writing-intensive courses)
• Optional/additional: research PI, physician, clinical supervisor, community service supervisor, or a committee letter.

Some schools are stricter than others, but almost all of them share two assumptions:

1. Letters should be from college-level instructors or post‑grad supervisors, not high school teachers.
2. Letters should describe your recent performance and readiness for medical training.

That’s the standard. Now let’s see where a high school mentor could possibly fit.

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When a High School Mentor Letter Is Clearly a Bad Idea

I’ll be direct. The following situations are basically non‑negotiable “no”:

1. You’re using a high school mentor to replace a required science or non‑science college professor letter.
2. Your high school mentor last saw you regularly when you were 17, and your relationship hasn’t continued in a meaningful way.
3. The main justification is: “They like me a lot and will write something very strong.” (Almost everyone thinks that. Admissions committees are numb to “glowing” but vague letters.)

Why is it a problem?

Because to an adcom, this screams at least one of the following:

• You couldn’t get a professor who knows you well enough to write for you.
• You haven’t built strong, recent professional or academic relationships.
• You don’t understand what med schools value in letters. That’s a judgment issue.

I’ve watched applicants with excellent stats shoot themselves in the foot by submitting two required science letters and then a third from a high school teacher “who’s known me the longest.” The content was lovely. The impact on the application? Neutral at best, slightly negative at worst. It raised questions.

So as a rule:
If you’re currently in or just finished college and your relationship with this person is mostly historical (high school only), do not use that letter.

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When a High School Mentor Letter Can Be Acceptable

Now the exceptions. There are some very specific scenarios where a high school mentor letter is not only acceptable but sometimes helpful—as an additional letter, not a replacement for required ones.

1. The Mentor Became a Long-Term, Ongoing Advisor

If your “high school mentor” is more like a multi‑year life and professional mentor, things change.

Example that works:

• You met a physician or researcher in high school through a summer program.
• You continued shadowing or working with them through college breaks.
• They’ve watched your growth from 16–22 in progressively more advanced roles.
• They can speak to your longitudinal development, maturity, and commitment to medicine.

In that case, it’s no longer “my high school teacher from 11th grade.” It’s “a physician mentor who’s supervised and advised me for six years.”

Caveat: They still should not replace your core academic letters. They should be an extra letter, often framed as:

“Clinical mentor letter from Dr. X (physician I’ve worked with since high school and throughout college).”

2. You’re a Nontraditional Applicant With a Gap in Recent Academics

If you’ve been out of school for 5–10+ years, the rules bend a bit, because adcoms know your “recent” relationships may all be professional.

Example:

• You finished high school.
• Worked, had family responsibilities, military, whatever.
• Recently completed some premed coursework, but your college letters are thin.
• You’ve kept in touch with a high school mentor who has seen your trajectory over a decade.

Here, that letter can add useful context: persistence, overcoming obstacles, early academic potential, long-term character. But again, it shouldn’t replace your recent academic letters from your post‑bacc or community college work.

3. The Mentor Has a Very Unusual, Directly Relevant Perspective

This is rare, but it exists.

Examples:

• A high school coach or teacher who later became your research collaborator or nonprofit co‑founder.
• A mentor who runs a major health-related community organization you’ve continued to work with every year.
• Someone who can comment on a unique, long-term project that spans high school into college (e.g., you started a community clinic initiative at 17 and have grown it through age 22 under their guidance).

If they can clearly demonstrate recent interaction and specific, advanced responsibilities, you might justify an additional letter from them.

But notice the pattern: what makes these acceptable isn’t “high school.” It’s sustained, meaningful involvement into your college years.

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How Adcoms Actually Read a “High School” Letter

Let me translate how this looks from the other side of the table.

Scenario: Third letter in the file, labeled “Letter from High School Teacher.”

Common reactions:

• “Why is this person submitting a high school letter? Are they short on college mentors?”
• “Can this writer comment on performance at the college level or in adult professional environments?”
• “Is this letter just nostalgia, or does it add anything we don’t already know?”

What helps or hurts?

Helpful:

• The writer clearly references interactions across multiple years, including college or post‑high school updates, ongoing projects, or repeated mentorship.
• The content adds something new: long-term resilience, major life events, character patterns over time, insight into your background.

Hurts or neutral:

• Letter focuses entirely on your performance in 11th grade AP Bio and how “promising” you seemed.
• Vague praise: “one of the best students I’ve ever taught,” no specifics.
• No mention of recent achievements or how you’ve grown.

Bottom line: if the letter mostly says “great 16-year-old student,” it’s dead weight.

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Smart vs. Dumb Ways to Use a High School Mentor

To make this concrete, here’s how different uses of a high school mentor letter tend to land.

Scenario	How It’s Viewed
Replacing a required science faculty letter with a high school AP Chem teacher	Bad – shows you do not understand expectations; raises red flags
Adding a 4th letter from a physician who’s mentored you since high school and supervised ongoing clinical work	Generally acceptable – can add depth if other letters are solid
Only academic letter is from a high school teacher; no college letters	Very concerning – suggests weak recent academic relationships
Nontrad applicant using it as one of several letters (with strong recent academic and professional letters)	Potentially acceptable – especially if it explains long-term trajectory

If you remember nothing else:
High school mentors are supplements, not substitutes.

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How to Decide: A Simple Decision Flow

Use this as a sanity check.

Deciding on Using a High School Mentor for LOR

Step	Description
Step 1	Thinking about high school mentor letter
Step 2	Do NOT use high school mentor. Prioritize getting required letters.
Step 3	Do NOT use. Relationship is too old.
Step 4	Probably skip. Adds little beyond nostalgia.
Step 5	OK as an extra letter, clearly labeled as long-term mentor
Step 6	Do you already meet all required LOR types with college/postgrad writers?
Step 7	Has this mentor worked with you beyond high school in a meaningful way?
Step 8	Can they speak to recent growth, responsibilities, or long-term development?

If you land in C, E, or G—stop trying to force this letter. It’s sentimentally important to you, not strategically important to your application.

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How to Use a High School Mentor Letter Well (If You Do)

If you’re in one of the legitimate exception categories and decide to use this letter, do it correctly.

1. Label it properly in AMCAS/AACOMAS.
   Example: “Long-term clinical mentor,” “Long-term community service mentor,” not “High School Biology Teacher.”

2. Frame the relationship in your communication and essays.
   You want adcoms to immediately understand this isn’t just a random 11th grade teacher. Somewhere (personal statement, activities, secondary) make it clear this person has been a multi‑year guide or supervisor.

3. Prep the writer with updated information.
   Do not let them write a letter based only on who you were at 17. Give them:

   • Your current CV.
   • A short summary of what you’ve done since high school.
   • A paragraph about what you hope they can highlight (growth over time, resilience, longitudinal commitment, etc.).

4. Keep the total number of letters reasonable.
   Flooding schools with 7–8 letters, half of which are marginal, doesn’t help you. For most applicants:

   • 3–4 strong, relevant letters beat
   • 6 mixed-quality letters where one is “my high school teacher liked me.”

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Better Alternatives If You’re Tempted to Use a High School Mentor

If you’re even asking this question, something else may be off. Often it means:

• You don’t have strong relationships with college professors.
• You don’t have supervisors who know you well.
• Or you’re underestimating how quickly you need to start cultivating letter writers.

What to do instead:

• Office hours strategy. Start showing up. Not just for questions you could Google, but to discuss material, ask about their research, or follow up on assignments. Build 1–2 real relationships each semester.

• Research or clinical supervisors. Even if they aren’t MDs or tenure-track professors, a PI or clinical supervisor who’s watched you show up consistently and take responsibility is more valuable than a nostalgic high school teacher.

• Post‑bacc or community college faculty. If your university years are behind you or were weak, you can rebuild your academic LOR network with more recent coursework.

The uncomfortable truth: if the only strong advocate you have is from high school, the problem isn’t which letters to choose. The problem is you haven’t built adequate relationships in your current environment. Fix that now, not next spring.

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Special Cases People Ask About All the Time

Let me clear a few common edge cases before you overthink them.

“My high school teacher is now a professor and I took a college course with them.”

In that case, they’re not functionally a “high school mentor” anymore—they’re a college instructor who can speak to your performance at the college level. List and use them as such.

“What if my high school mentor is a big-name physician or researcher?”

Name recognition is wildly overrated. Adcoms care about what the letter says, not who signed it. A detailed, specific letter from a mid-career community college professor who knows you well is better than a generic platitude from a department chair at a famous hospital who met you twice.

“I did a highly competitive high school research program; can that PI write for me?”

If you’ve stayed in touch, done follow-up work, or kept that relationship current—yes, as an extra letter. If it was one summer you did at 17 and nothing since—probably not worth it.

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The Real Question You Should Be Asking

Instead of “Can I use a high school mentor?” the better question is:

“Do my letters, as a whole, prove that I’m ready for the academic and professional demands of medical school—right now?”

A tight LOR packet usually looks like this:

• 2 strong science faculty letters from college/post‑bacc.
• 1 strong non‑science or “other” faculty letter.
• 0–1 additional letters from clinical, research, or long‑term mentors (which might be someone you first met in high school, if the relationship continued into adulthood).

If your high school mentor helps complete that story of who you are today and how you got here—and you’re not using them to dodge building better, recent relationships—they can fit.

If they’re a crutch for a weak network, they won’t.

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Open your current LOR plan right now and list your writers by role and time frame (e.g., “Org Chem professor, 2023,” “Research PI, 2022–present,” “High school mentor, 2016–2018, no recent contact”). Ask yourself one hard question: if you removed the high school mentor from that list, could you still build a strong, current, convincing letter set? If not, your next step today is to email one current or recent professor and schedule a meeting to start building that relationship.