Adcoms, what's so special about a committee letter?

[sarcasmrules]

I've always been curious since a lot of the time, students rarely meet their committee/advisor so I've always been curious what the committee letter says that regular letters don't.

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[Mr.Smile12]

Read

How to Work with Pre-Health Advisors and Committees - SDN

The Student Doctor Network provides free tools, resources, and advising services to help students become health professionals.

www.studentdoctor.net

Eight Questions About the Pre-Health “Committee Letter” - SDN

The Student Doctor Network provides free tools, resources, and advising services to help students become health professionals.

www.studentdoctor.net

 

[cj_cregg]

It is meant to be a standardized evaluation. You are correct that the committee may not actually know the student well, but they do review and incorporate letters from professors, supervisors, etc who do know the student. They also evaluate and rank each student somewhat objectively on several different metrics such as clinical experience, service orientation, academic preparation, etc. and give some comparison to other students applying from that school. A regular LOR writer may or may not be able to do this.

 

[Goro]

Saves us time

Many undergraduate schools are feeders to Medical schools. Therefore their students are a known product. If a pre-med committee gives a good rating, then that means the student is likely to succeed in medical school.

Conversely, if the student gets a bad rating we can save a lot of time and not having to deal with that particular applicant.

 

[sarcasmrules]

Saves us time

Many undergraduate schools are feeders to Medical schools. Therefore their students are a known product. If a pre-med committee gives a good rating, then that means the student is likely to succeed in medical school.

Conversely, if the student gets a bad rating we can save a lot of time and not having to deal with that particular applicant.

Oh I see. So if a student lacks a committee letter, it's assumed the committee didn't think they were ready, hence a red flag.

 

[Goro]

Oh I see. So if a student lacks a committee letter, it's assumed the committee didn't think they were ready, hence a red flag.

It's not always a red flag but sometimes applicants are asked to explain why they didn't have the committee letter

 

[sarcasmrules]

It's not always a red flag but sometimes applicants are asked to explain why they didn't have the committee letter

I noticed about 50 schools require/prefer one and only a small minority ask why you don't have one. I can only assume they've heard it all and just stopped giving applicants a chance to explain why.

 

[LizzyM]

Not only is it nice to have the committee letter which tends to follow a specific format for students at a given school (every school is different but I'd know just where to find a specific bit of information in a letter from Duke or Penn; Emory and Hopkins have ratings by category that are very helpful, Columbia tends to have a very informative biographical narrative. )

Also, in some cases, we have met the writers of the letters through events sponsored by the med school intended to introduce feeder school pre-med advisors to our school. It is nice to put a name and a voice with a signature on a letter and maybe that helps just the littlest bit, too.

 

[wysdoc]

Oh I see. So if a student lacks a committee letter, it's assumed the committee didn't think they were ready, hence a red flag.

A factor in not getting a committee letter could also be related to the applicant:
- who didn't make contact with their college's pre-health advising office to even know they could get a committee letter,
- who knew about it too late to meet the deadline,
- who didn't want to bother to produce the information the committee asked for,
- who decided to apply to med school later in college and so could not meet the committee deadlines.

So, yeah, a med school might judge you for missing deadlines

There are SOME committees (I don't know which ones, don't @ me) that only give a letter to:
- the very best candidates so their college's stats will look good,
- candidates they feel are prepared to submit a well rounded application. They may have the applicant's best interests in mind with this one, knowing that an application with a 488 MCAT or with no shadowing or volunteering is unlikely to be successful and to encourage the applicant to wait until they build their application up more.

 

[eigen]

From the perspective of someone who writes composite committee letters (and at a place that does interviews with applicants / assigns the writing to someone on the committee who has interacted substantially with the applicant), my view is that our committee letters are able to give the admissions committee the information they need in a more useful form.

Many, many letter writers don't know what admissions committees are looking for, don't know what the competencies are, and spend a lot of time either (a) talking about the candidate without illustrative examples, or (b) talking about themselves / their classes and not the candidate. When we put together composite letters, we look to outline the candidates strengths based on illustrative examples and show how they align with critical core competencies. That "experience" of putting together evaluative letters helps us contextualize what's important and leave out what isn't.

Additionally, while we aren't a "major feeder school", we do have a lot of students who have been successful, and try to make it such that our recommendation carries weight, and builds off of students who we have sent in the past who were successful at that school.

Or at least that's the hope.

 

[nauglegross]

Perhaps a silly question, but with the topic of a committee letter's importance, should I wait to submit secondaries until my pre-med committee attaches the letter to my AMCAS app? I'm confident in what my committee will say in my support, so I don't want admissions to look at my app until it's there. I'm also a first time non-trad who doesn't know what he's talking about, so any advice is welcome.

 

[LizzyM]

If a school thinks that it is important, it will hold your application off to the side until the letter is there. If it thinks that you are the cat's meow and would interview you regardless of what the letter says (but will make a note that the letters should be reviewed later in the unlikely event that there is something deal breaking in the letter before an offer is made), it will review your application and maybe even send an interview invite before your letter(s) arrive. Don't delay your secondaries because your LOR is delayed.

 

[eigen]

Perhaps a silly question, but with the topic of a committee letter's importance, should I wait to submit secondaries until my pre-med committee attaches the letter to my AMCAS app? I'm confident in what my committee will say in my support, so I don't want admissions to look at my app until it's there. I'm also a first time non-trad who doesn't know what he's talking about, so any advice is welcome.

No. Not all schools even use letters at the same time as secondaries: I know some schools that don't use letters until after interviews (granted, probably not the majority). Submit your parts of the application when they're ready, and the school will review as they have what they want to look at.

The only caveat to this is if you have a lot of individual letters in addition to your committee letter (or, on the other swing, if you have a committee letter but are waiting on one key supplemental letter).

 

[dagoat]

Oh I see. So if a student lacks a committee letter, it's assumed the committee didn't think they were ready, hence a red flag.

or maybe the school doesn't offer a commitee letter.

 

[wysdoc]

or maybe the school doesn't offer a commitee letter.

The question was - what if your school does offer one and you didn’t get one: explain yourself

 

[sarcasmrules]

The question was - what if your school does offer one and you didn’t get one: explain yourself

Their brain is probably fried from churning our secondaries non-stop. I know mine is.

 

[dagoat]

Their brain is probably fried from churning our secondaries non-stop. I know mine is.

yup. my apologies lol

 

[RunnerDad]

When an applicant's undergraduate school doesn't even offer committee letters, am I correct that med schools don't hold that against the applicant?

 

[wysdoc]

When an applicant's undergraduate school doesn't even offer committee letters, am I correct that med schools don't hold that against the applicant?

That's right

 

[sarcasmrules]

When an applicant's undergraduate school doesn't even offer committee letters, am I correct that med schools don't hold that against the applicant?

Nope, it's an auto rejection.

That was a joke, for the record.

 

[Goro]

When an applicant's undergraduate school doesn't even offer committee letters, am I correct that med schools don't hold that against the applicant?

Correct