6 LOR's too many?

[maslow12]

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I can send a maximum of 6 LOR's through my university's letter sending program. I'm reading that medical schools might not want to see any more than 4 or 5. Should I cut one off?

 

[Green Grass]

Depends. Have you read them (I know this is a big no-no)? I didn't get a chance to read mine before sending them off and I had 6 LOR. I did this partly because I got more as time went on and because every school has different criteria that you have to meet with the LOR. If you have read them, pick the best 4 and go with them. If not, keep them all in case you need to meet certain school specific LOR criteria.

 

[OneMCATAway]

im in the same situation with exactly 6 LOR's, I know some schools accept more than it is required but for some you have to send exactly as they ask!

i wish i knew which one of my letters is stronger but I say chose based on who the letter is from and the school's requirement!

 

[maslow12]

The letters which I choose to send in my "packet" will be the letters which are received by EVERY school to which I apply. Its more a matter of do I want to send 5 or 6 letters off to every school that I apply to...

 

[Nafis64]

Yeah, the new amcas letter service sucks. I have my LORs at an institution and one other committee letter I have will be uploaded. But there is no way to separate the Letter packet letters individually. I have 6 in there plus another committee uploaded? Should I send them all to every school. It makes 7 LORs total. Is there a way to indicate like if you require only 3 take the top three and discard the rest from the packet?

 

[BlueElmo]

You probably don't want to send more than a maximum of 5.

 

[JasonE]

i have a similar prob. 6 LOR + committee letter gives 7 and my school uses vevals, so i don't think i can separate them. any thoughts?

 

[LAman10]

sigh, same situation here. 6 LORs. I'd normally have 4, but freaking harvard needs letters from ALL your PIs 🙁. Do I send out all 6 just for the sake of applying to harvard? ugggh

 

[lrkoehle]

You probably don't want to send more than a maximum of 5.

I agree, if it is possible. Most schools ask for three, so one or two extra is not a big deal. They just don't want to sit and read through 6 or more, I wouldn't either. You have to really decide if those extra couple of letters are actually going to add much to your application. If they will just be generic, "so-and-so shadowed me" or "I had so-and-so in my class," then that will distract them from focusing on your really good LORs. Like most things in this process, quality is better than quantity.

 

[mdeast]

Does your university do a committee letter? I have 6 letters in, which is what my school suggests to help the office write a good letter. I haven't read any of them, but if one or two aren't significant the office will just discard them and not include them with my application. The committee letter is a summary of your candidacy with direct quotes from all individual letters submitted...and definitely important because it will be the starting point to whether or not an adcom wants to read all 6 individual recs.

I'd definitely say 6 is the max, but not a drawback.

 

[Blahblahologist]

I've got six plus a committee letter, too. Since I'm a non-trad trying to cover a lot of years plus post-bacc work, I'll probably send more rather than fewer. Even though I haven't read them, I have a pretty good idea which are going to be better than others and those will go out everywhere. For schools willing to accept six or seven, I'll send the whole shebang.

I smiled at the line about reading the letters being a no-no. You're right, but years ago, I had a prof who said, "Yeah, yeah, give me the waiver and all that and I'll mail it signed and sealed. But then I'm going to send you a copy too." He was of the opnion it was unethical to put people in a position where they didn't know whether they were sending a letter of recommendation or letter of character assassination. Definitely a minority opinion, though.

 

[aznb0y129]

I submitted 6, plus a committee letter this past cycle. I never encountered any problems with having "too many LORs" at any school I applied to.

 

[Mattabet]

I submitted 6, plus a committee letter this past cycle. I never encountered any problems with having "too many LORs" at any school I applied to.

Yeah. I think the worst case scenario (putting myself in the adcom's chair) is I would read until I get bored (or the letters get repetitive) and then skim the rest. You'll get less bang for your letter with 6, but I don't think it reflects poorly on you - especially because this is the first year of quasi-manditory AMCAS letter service. They've still got some kinks to work out.

 

[BlueElmo]

Yeah. I think the worst case scenario (putting myself in the adcom's chair) is I would read until I get bored (or the letters get repetitive) and then skim the rest. You'll get less bang for your letter with 6, but I don't think it reflects poorly on you - especially because this is the first year of quasi-manditory AMCAS letter service. They've still got some kinks to work out.

They probably all start to sound the same eventually.

 

[shemarty]

You probably don't want to send more than a maximum of 5.

I strongly disagree. If you have 6(+) strong letters that each speak to a different aspect of your application, send them all.

I submitted 6, plus a committee letter this past cycle. I never encountered any problems with having "too many LORs" at any school I applied to.

I submitted 8 (no committee letters) to every school. I called up each school that I applied to last year to ask if it was okay to exceed their limit, and they said that as long as they arrived in a packet, it was okay.

My premed advisor read the letters and advised me to keep all of them and helped me to put them in order for my packet. The best ones were at the top of the packet, in case they decided not to read them all. Some of my "required" letters were towards the end of the packet, so if they were truly required, they would've had to read/skim the entire packet.

Exceeding the LOR limit didn't hurt me. Don't be excessive, though. I think 10+ would be insane.

 

[zerial]

Does it matter if we submit them in a "packet" versus submitting a number of individual letters separately? It shouldn't really make a difference to the adcom, should it?

So we can just have a bunch of individual letters in AMCAS and assign different combinations to each school.

 

[shemarty]

Does it matter if we submit them in a "packet" versus submitting a number of individual letters separately? It shouldn't really make a difference to the adcom, should it?

So we can just have a bunch of individual letters in AMCAS and assign different combinations to each school.

Yes, you can do that and they'll still arrive "together."

When they get the LORs from AMCAS, they're just directly downloaded in one piece... (i think) When schools get LORs from VirtualEvals/Interfolio, they're also directly downloaded in one piece. My school's career center printed out my letters, stapled them together, and mailed them in one manila envelope.

Individual letters is when Prof A mails a letter to the school, Prof B mails a letter to the school next week, Prof C mails a letter to the school next month, etc. The school has to keep track of all these pieces of mail that they receive.

 

[2Fic]

6 LORS?!
I am having trouble getting 2/3.
haha consider yourself fortunate

 

[BlueElmo]

I strongly disagree. If you have 6(+) strong letters that each speak to a different aspect of your application, send them all.

Actually, I contacted some schools and they told me submitting more than their required 3 or 4 was strongly discouraged. I don't think it's wise to actually submit 6 when some schools clearly do not want so many.

 

[shemarty]

Actually, I contacted some schools and they told me submitting more than their required 3 or 4 was strongly discouraged. I don't think it's wise to actually submit 6 when some schools clearly do not want so many.

Well, I don't know, then.

I was being stubborn last year and I really didn't want to have to cut any of my letters, so I didn't. I called the schools to check, and they told me it was fine to send a packet with more than the max, but to use my judgement about whether certain letters were neccesary. I checked with my premed advisor, and in the end I sent them all. This didn't hurt me (it may not have helped, either *shrug*)

Obviously it's BEST to follow instructions, but not following instructions in this case did not result in my app being tossed in the garbage.

Maybe Penn was mad that I exceeded their max 😛

 

[0Complications]

Well, I don't know, then.

I was being stubborn last year and I really didn't want to have to cut any of my letters, so I didn't. I called the schools to check, and they told me it was fine to send a packet with more than the max, but to use my judgement about whether certain letters were neccesary. I checked with my premed advisor, and in the end I sent them all. This didn't hurt me (it may not have helped, either *shrug*)

Obviously it's BEST to follow instructions, but not following instructions in this case did not result in my app being tossed in the garbage.

Maybe Penn was mad that I exceeded their max 😛

Yeah, but the OP might not have a 3.8 GPA and a 38 GPA from Stanford...



Don't send more than their limit. If they say 3-5 I wouldn't send more than 4, but that part is up to your discretion. But definitely don't send more than their max. They set a maximum for a reason. If you send more than their max they might opt to only read the minimum because you couldn't follow directions, or the cap, but either way this would be their decision and you would have no control over which letters they read.

 

[shemarty]

Yeah, but the OP might not have a 3.8 GPA and a 38 GPA from Stanford...

fine 😳

 

[Jolt21]

my pre-med committee requires 6 and then gives them all to a composite writer (whom we also choose) who writes one big letter with quotes from all of them and some of his/her own insight. in the end, schools get all 7. never heard of it hurting the student since there really is nothing we can do about it. if your UG school requires it, i cant imagine it hurting you, but if you have to send them in yourself to med schools, then i would follow the guidelines of each school.

 

[McKitty]

I strongly disagree. If you have 6(+) strong letters that each speak to a different aspect of your application, send them all.



I submitted 8 (no committee letters) to every school. I called up each school that I applied to last year to ask if it was okay to exceed their limit, and they said that as long as they arrived in a packet, it was okay.

My premed advisor read the letters and advised me to keep all of them and helped me to put them in order for my packet. The best ones were at the top of the packet, in case they decided not to read them all. Some of my "required" letters were towards the end of the packet, so if they were truly required, they would've had to read/skim the entire packet.

Exceeding the LOR limit didn't hurt me. Don't be excessive, though. I think 10+ would be insane.

Wait, premed advisors are allowed to see our recommendation letters? I know they have access to letter storage sites such as Interfolio, but I did not know that they can view the letters for us and let us know which letters are good or not so good...😕