Interfolio/snail mail

[SrootsWwings]

Hi all,

This specifically discussed around 2007, but I believe AMCAS has made decisions since then, so...

My bottom line question: what advantages does Interfolio have over providing referees with everything needed to send directly to AMCAS?

The major one I see is that it creates a checkpoint at which all individual letters can be pooled before being sent simultaneously to AMCAS --> being sent simultaneously to schools (vs. AMCAS receiving and sending LOR's as they come in). Following this logic, does it actually make a difference if a school receives 2 LOR's simultaneously or a week apart?

There are two disadvantages to Interfolio; 1) regarding referee submission, they either have to have or create an Interfolio username (one of my prof's is pretty old-fashioned, I seriously doubt he has one), or they can mail it in, which creates a significant amount of extra processing time 2) on top of that, it seems there is ~ 1 week of processing once a letter reaches Interfolio itself.

So, do I have a major blind spot here, or does this make sense?

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[NuttyEngDude]

I've been using Interfolio mainly because I like the idea that they keep things on file for as long as you pay. I think AAMC doesnt keep the letters on file more than the year you apply (?) but I am not sure on that, I do remember it being kind of shorter than I want. My post-bacc school offers a similar service, but I dont want to fight a school's bureaucracy if push comes to shove, it's better to be a customer than a former student. So in the unhopeful event that it takes me several cycles to get in or I give up and want to try later down the road, I still have my letters.

So far, the processing time has been on average like this: the prof sends me a mail that they are USPS mailing it that day (monday), by friday or sooner I get an e-mail from interfolio that it is ready. So including snail mail time, 5 days maybe? If the person decides to e-mail it in, I will get an e-mail from interfolio saying i have a LOR ready before I get the e-mail from the person saying they have just mailed it in (minutes apart).

I'm sort of old fashioned myself so I always provide a stamped envelope to the person when asking for the LoR and if they prefer to use e-mail I have instructions next to the envelope. I actually think the letter looks nicer with official letterhead than just text from an e-mail. On the other hand, I suppose they could attach a word document or pdf with the letterhead in it. It all depends...... Oh yeah, and content matters too, lol.

 

[DrMidlife]

AMCAS won't send letters to anybody but med school admissions offices. Unless they got smarter than they were last year.

Mistake, MISTAKE, to make your recommenders do the work to get into AMCAS and then have to go back and ask them to resend to another service later, for a fellowship or scholarship or summer research gig.

Interfolio gives you control over who gets what when, and it doesn't introduce any detriments to your AMCAS presentation.

Best of luck to you.

 

[SrootsWwings]

Thanks a lot, y'all! That makes clear sense and unveils my blind spot. Interfolio is getting one more customer.