6 meaningful LORs but the max for some schools is 5

[Hawkenthesky]

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[shmuz]

Doesn't your committee letter present an evaluation of you as an applicant among other applicants at your school, after reviewing letters 2-6? That's how my school does it, and my school sends a letter packet with the committee letter plus the other letters, with priority being given to the committee letter.

 

[gyngyn]

A committee letter is sufficient and preferable to individual (and additional) letters (except in Utah).
In other words, the committee letter is in lieu of individual letters. It is not one of them!

 

[Hawkenthesky]

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[shmuz]

My school's pre med committee doesn't look at our other letters of rec. During undergrad we can ask different profs to submit short evaluations to the premedical committee which i think get reviewed when they're writing our committee letter, and we have to fill out this long document with tons of info about what we did during college, but none of the insight from any of the people writing letters #2, #4, or #6 would be available to the premed committee. Some insight from the people writing letters #3 and #5 would be available, bc both of those people filled out evals for me when i was in college, but I don't think the committee letter will fully elaborate on the depth of those experiences.

So I guess if i had to narrow it down to 4 letters, I'd do the Committee letter, and then letter #2 (from my current boss), #4 (from my research advisor at a different institution), and #6 (physician mentor from this past summer, after graduation).

But idk what i'll do for schools requiring only 3 letters...

My school's pre med committee doesn't look at our other letters of rec. During undergrad we can ask different profs to submit short evaluations to the premedical committee which i think get reviewed when they're writing our committee letter, and we have to fill out this long document with tons of info about what we did during college, but none of the insight from any of the people writing letters #2, #4, or #6 would be available to the premed committee. Some insight from the people writing letters #3 and #5 would be available, bc both of those people filled out evals for me when i was in college, but I don't think the committee letter will fully elaborate on the depth of those experiences.

So I guess if i had to narrow it down to 4 letters, I'd do the Committee letter, and then letter #2 (from my current boss), #4 (from my research advisor at a different institution), and #6 (physician mentor from this past summer, after graduation).

But idk what i'll do for schools requiring only 3 letters...

How long have you worked at your current lab job? If it's been for short-ish, I'd exclude letter #2. So for 3 letters, committee letter + letter #4 and 6 since they'd be more personable.

 

[Hawkenthesky]

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[shmuz]

I started my current research tech job last July, so it's almost a full year. And i'll be here for one more year.

I agree with you that 4&6 will be more personable, and I would rather have those, but will schools look negatively on me not sending the letter from my current PI? Or am I just being too paranoid?.

Yea, that's a difficult choice. I'd still exclude letter #2 since the qualities that letter #2 may comment on are prob better portrayed/articulated in letters #4/6. Perhaps someone else can chime in on this.

 

[Hawkenthesky]

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[Lucca]

I think that you should read the requirements for each school and follow them. If you have questions it might be best to contact schools individually. IIRC at most places committee letter trumps individual and they only want the committee letter as opposed to multiple letters. But the only way to find out is to ask each individually or find the info explicitly on their site.