Any Nontrads w/o a premed letter?

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johnnyMD

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anyone out of college 3+ yrs NOT getting a premed letter? anyone applied in the past with a favorable experience?

i dont see a point in getting a premed letter unless ur an undergrad.
 

johnnyMD

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premed advisory committee letter thingie
 

pjm

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I am assuming that by "premed letter" you mean a pre-medical committee letter.

LORs for nontrads can be hard, because you've lost touch with profs you worked with. However, LORs are a super-critical part of your application. You need to have strong and personal references. The old "Bob showed up to class and was 42nd out of 525 students" stuff is pretty pedestrian.

My school's premed office assigned me an MD advisor who was also an alum. (They do not have a committee.) Even better, he also took some time to do other things after undergrad. This advisor just advised on medicine, not on the application process.

My advisor really helped me with understanding medicine, and he also helped my application. He wrote me a cover LOR that gave an overview of my other LORs, plus his own personal insights. (At least, that's what the office asked him to write; I obviously never read it.)
 

Odaroloc

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I was 1 yr out and got one, very helpful, well written and convenient...i chose a letter writer to compose it, he did the interview over the phone, great experience...these people on the commitee like to write them and do a great job most of the time. I would reccommend taking advantage of the service if your school offers it...
 

Pinkertinkle

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A lotta schools don't even have a premed committee whatever that is.
 

Brickhouse

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Yeah I was a nontraditional and I didn't have a premedical committee....it's not a big deal.
 

Kimmer

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Hi,
Was a 2001 grad and I found it fairly easy to get letters. Just send your resume, highlights from your transcript and things you want mentioned in the letter to whoever you want to write the letter. You don't actually write the letter but you do have to do the grunt work and give them very clear ideas of what you are all about.
Good luck.
 

Pembleton

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I got letters from my post bacc teachers but not one from the pre-med advisor.

I still haven't got in anywhere and I don't know if that's a factor or not.
 

lyragrl

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I graduated from college almost 10 years ago and applied this year to med school for the first time. I could not use my pre-med committee (since I hadn't taken my pre-reqs as an undergrad). So I got two letters from my post-bac professors, one from my undergrad advisor (not pre-med, but my major advisor), two from my current employers, and one from a grad school teacher. It was all fine. I've been accepted to several schools.
 

lisa13579

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Same here...I've been out of school for 5 years, got letters from post-bac proferssors and one from my employer. I've been accepted to several schools as well, so I don't think not having a pre-med committee letter was a big deal.
 

medman12677

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Originally posted by lisa13579
Same here...I've been out of school for 5 years, got letters from post-bac proferssors and one from my employer. I've been accepted to several schools as well, so I don't think not having a pre-med committee letter was a big deal.

Ditto :thumbup:
 

MeowMix

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Same here, out of school 18 years, got letters from supervisors, employers, faculty from recent course work, doctors I had shadowed. No committee letter. Very positive results with my applications.
 

Swiper

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I graduated 6 years ago from a school that does have a pre-med committee. And, I did technically take all of the prereqs back in ugrad. Now, during 2 years of post-bacc work, I've retaken some prereqs and have taken other advanced science courses. My LORs came from 2 post-bacc science profs and 1 ugrad major (Arts & Letters) prof, as well as from work and clinical experiences. No letters from my ugrad's pre-med committee or ugrad science profs. I completed 3 interviews and have 2 acceptances.

At no time was it an issue that I didn't utilize my ugrad's pre-med committee.
 

edik

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Be careful. Some schools require a pre-med letter if the school has a pre-med committee.
And why not? I was out of college for 7 years and still was able to get one.
 

Skaterbabe74

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My school doesn't have committee letters anyway so not having one whether you're a nontrad or not isn't a big deal. Sure it means you are the one to organize all of your LORs but personally I wouldn't trust that to some secretary anyway unless that's their only job.
 

Anka

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Nontrad w/o premed letter. Just fine (Penn, Harvard, U Chicago...). No one brought it up. They'll want to know why not on some of the apps. Just say, "I am a nontrad & didn't have access to a committee."

Anka
 
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