advice for getting LORs?

Hi! I have a question for all of you who have applied to med school already. How did you go about getting letters of recommendation from your professors? I feel like it is difficult to get to know them without making it seem like the only reason you are doing it is to get the LOR (even though it is!). Any advice is much appreciated.
Thanks!

Sorry I don’t have any advice - I haven’t asked my teachers yet, either ! But I do have a question about those outside people I’ve already asked. 2 physicians have been sitting on my LOTRs now for over a month. Two weeks ago I asked them to mail them by last Monday and neither one of them has done anything ! Does anyone have suggestions for dealing with deadbeat letter writers without being a nag? Or maybe I should nag ??

Stina,
I have no advice for you on this. One prof has been sitting on my LORs since the first week of August. We’re rapidly approaching the 3 month period since I gave her the paperwork and the deadlines at which many of my secondaries will be declared incomplete.
Oh well.

My professors were more than happy to do the LORs. Throughout the quarter, I would visit them during office hours with questions on homework problems or whatever. After we finished working problems, I usually asked them about their research work and when they finished talking about it they would ask what I was doing in school at my age, leading to a discussion of my med school intentions. At this point, two out of three OFFERED to write me a recommendation if I needed it, so I said SURE. Bottom line: don’t worry about it. They know you need the letters and if you’re a good student and make the effort to talk to them a little outside of class, they’ll be more than willing to help out.

For those who have LORs languishing in “out box” limbo with your writers…this is really a touchy subject, but med schools won’t evaluate your application without your letters.
Have you thought about another recommender to replace the slow-poke writer? If you do this, let the med schools know that there is a change in who is writing for you. Also, if the schools already have a few letters, they may let those suffice. Call your med school admissions offices and bring them into the loop and see what they recommend (no pun intended).
Also, have you let your recommenders know that without their letters, your application is dead in the water?