AMCAS: Advisor release dilemma!

[icantthinkofausername95]

Hi,

In the AMCAS application, there's a section that asks if you would like to release your information to your premed advisory committee. I absolutely would not like to because my premed advisors are rude as hell and haven't offered me any supportive or encouraging advice during any of the many meetings I've had with them. However, I'm not sure if (during one of the general premed meetings held annually at my school) one of the advisors had said that we must select "yes" if we want them to submit an LOE on our behalf. They may have said this, or I may just be imagining it through paranoia.

So my question is this: If I select "no", will my premed advisors be unable to submit the LOE to AMCAS for me? The AMCAS instructions don't mention anything about this so I'm not sure.

Thanks!
P.S Please be polite in your responses ^_^

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[LizzyM]

I have no authoritative information on this matter but I think that they will release the results of your cycle to the premed advisory committee which gives you the chance to rub your success in their faces. Sweet revenge.

 

[LizzyM]

you do not have to allow release to premed in order for them to write LOE. Any suggestion to the contrary is patently false

But could a given undergrad committee make it a quid pro quo? Not saying that it is right, but it wouldn't surprise me.

 

[icantthinkofausername95]

Thanks for the help everyone!!

 

[ADSigMel]

Actually, I think at my school, you DO have to allow the pre-Med advisors access to your AMCAS for them to write the LOE. The way this was explained to me is that they won't write a committee letter for you until after you've actually applied, and they won't KNOW you've applied unless they get the notification from AMCAS. I'm fuzzy on the details because I'm not using a committee letter, but I'm pretty sure that's the deal at my school.


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[SQBlack]

I would think no. AMCAS lists this question as optional. It allows advisors access the with NAAHP the group recognized by AAMC as representing advisors. I would think there would be verbiage in any agreement between the two groups, individual policy by NAAHP, or policy by AMCAS that forbids this. Requiring a student to give access to advisor under the coercive threat of not giving a letter would be suspect and prohibited on many levels as mentioned.

I know this is a slightly old thread, but I suspect people are still checking it.

I am the pre-health advisor for a large public institution. We do require students to agree to the advisor release if they would like a committee letter from us. There is not agreement or policy by NAAHP or AMCAS that prohibits this practice, at least to my knowledge.

Note that the release allows medical school admissions personnel to discuss the applicant with the advisor responsible for the committee letter. Not being able to contact the person responsible for the committee letter and ask them questions could significantly reduce the value of the letter in evaluating students.

On a more philosophical note, trusting the evaluation committee enough to request a letter from them, but disliking them enough to not release the information to the advisors, seems to me to be a tricky needle to thread. I can understand circumstances where an applicant would not want to deal with the evaluation committee at all, and thus would not seek a committee letter and would not approve the advisor release. (In such a case, I think an explanation to the medical schools as to the reason would likely be helpful.) But it's hard for me to see the sense in asking a committee to advocate for you but then requiring them to withhold that advocacy when it comes to direct contact from admissions personnel.

 

[Throwaway5129]

I have no authoritative information on this matter but I think that they will release the results of your cycle to the premed advisory committee which gives you the chance to rub your success in their faces. Sweet revenge.

Bumping a very old thread, but does this mean they will be informed of the schools you were accepted to/rejected from? Or just the school you decided to attended?

 

[LizzyM]

Bumping a very old thread, but does this mean they will be informed of the schools you were accepted to/rejected from? Or just the school you decided to attended? .

@SQBlack can you answer this one?

 

[premedstudentvuri]

What about essays? research hours reported? do they receive those as well?