Attended Stanford for undergrad - should I use not well known state school postbac committee letter?

[student-of-life]

I attended Stanford for undergrad, taught through TFA, and then worked in edtech for a few years before deciding to become a doctor. As a career changer, I've done most of my pre-req requirements over the past 1.5 years at a local state school, which is now offering to write me a committee letter. I already have an amazing lineup of letters from professors and my work experience, and am also worried about overshadowing my primary academic experience at Stanford by having the state school rec letter at the top of my rec packet. I've read that if a school offers a committee letter, one should take it, but am wondering if this advice still applies in my situation. For reference, I'm planning to apply to competitive med schools. I'd really appreciate any insights.

P.S. As someone navigating this process on a shoestring budget, SDN has been an amazing resource for me - I appreciate everyone on here.

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[anhnen5]

I'm not an adcom or anything, so this is just my opinion. The goal of the committee letter is for the school to offer support for you as a candidate for medical school. Depending on your school, this committee is usually made up of pre health advisors and science professors. What was your major at standford? Was it still science? Does Stanford have a pre health committee that you can use?

If you took a majority of your pre-reqs at this state school, you should get the committee letter from them. Now Stanford name carries a very good reputation, but if you hadn't taken a majority of your science courses with them, they wouldn't be able to judge your competitiveness for medical school. Depending on how your committee views it, you could use your letters from Stanford to be included with the state school's committee letter.

Your application will still require transcripts from Stanford, so adcoms would still know you went to Stanford.

 

[DSM_302.0]

Stanford grad here. What anhen5 just said is right. I did my postbac at an extension school and used their committee letter and thankfully had a successful application cycle. I didn't have any letter from Stanford and it was a-okay. Good luck!

 

[student-of-life]

Thanks anhnen5 and DSM! DSM, it's great to hear of a success story from someone who was in a similar boat. Would you mind sharing where you ended up? I'd love thoughts from any others out there who can offer further confirmation or an alternative viewpoint.

Anhnen5, I was a science major at Stanford with a solid GPA but did the vast majority of my pre-reqs at the state school. Interestingly, Stanford does not write committee letters for any students.

A related question for the two of you (and any others who wouldn't mind offering insight) if you don't mind: I have a total of 7 letters in addition to the committee letter (one Stanford prof, two state school profs (one bio; one chem), a doctor I shadowed and conducted research with, a social worker I volunteered with, the CEO of the edtech startup I worked for, and a teaching colleague from my TFA days); I know some schools have a letter cap of 5; would I be okay in applying to those schools with my full recommendation lineup if it's coming in one committee packet, or should I ask the advisor from the committee to create two separate packets to submit to AAMC (one for schools without the cap, and another for schools with the cap)?

 

[anhnen5]

Thanks anhnen5 and DSM! DSM, it's great to hear of a success story from someone who was in a similar boat. Would you mind sharing where you ended up? I'd love thoughts from any others out there who can offer further confirmation or an alternative viewpoint.

Anhnen5, I was a science major at Stanford with a solid GPA but did the vast majority of my pre-reqs at the state school. Interestingly, Stanford does not write committee letters for any students.

A related question for the two of you (and any others who wouldn't mind offering insight) if you don't mind: I have a total of 7 letters in addition to the committee letter (one Stanford prof, two state school profs (one bio; one chem), a doctor I shadowed and conducted research with, a social worker I volunteered with, the CEO of the edtech startup I worked for, and a teaching colleague from my TFA days); I know some schools have a letter cap of 5; would I be okay in applying to those schools with my full recommendation lineup if it's coming in one committee packet, or should I ask the advisor from the committee to create two separate packets to submit to AAMC (one for schools without the cap, and another for schools with the cap)?

I would be conservative in my approach if I were you and just choose the best letters to meet the limit of your pre-health committee. If you can honestly say that all 7 letters are strong then use however many of them to fulfill your pre-health committee's requirements. Quality > Quantity. Your pre-health committee packet will fulfill any requirement by a medical school without exceeding the limit regardless of the number of letters in the packet so you don't have to worry about it.

Now whether or not admissions will read every letter included in your packet or in what order depends on the individual school. If you have like 7 letters, they may or may not read all of them is what I've heard. That's why I'd err on the side of precaution and really only choose letters that would best vouch for you. If it's all 7 then so be it.

 

[DSM_302.0]

Thanks anhnen5 and DSM! DSM, it's great to hear of a success story from someone who was in a similar boat. Would you mind sharing where you ended up? I'd love thoughts from any others out there who can offer further confirmation or an alternative viewpoint.

Anhnen5, I was a science major at Stanford with a solid GPA but did the vast majority of my pre-reqs at the state school. Interestingly, Stanford does not write committee letters for any students.

A related question for the two of you (and any others who wouldn't mind offering insight) if you don't mind: I have a total of 7 letters in addition to the committee letter (one Stanford prof, two state school profs (one bio; one chem), a doctor I shadowed and conducted research with, a social worker I volunteered with, the CEO of the edtech startup I worked for, and a teaching colleague from my TFA days); I know some schools have a letter cap of 5; would I be okay in applying to those schools with my full recommendation lineup if it's coming in one committee packet, or should I ask the advisor from the committee to create two separate packets to submit to AAMC (one for schools without the cap, and another for schools with the cap)?

I had 6 letters, including the committee letter from the postbac. The information contained in the committee letter was unique from the other 5. This is because I had 4 or 5 science teachers from my postbac fill out 'evaluations' for me, which my committee head synthesized into a single letter for me. I believe this is different from a packet, which sounds like your postbac does, and I'm not super familiar with how that works, so I can best share advice based on what I did.

For the other letters, one was from a physician I shadowed, one from a science teacher (whose evaluation was separate from the others who went into the committee letter), two from my previous bosses, and one from the volunteer director at the program I was at for a few years.

Many schools have a cap, but many do not. For those that had a cap, I either called or emailed and asked if I could send more. Most said it's fine. Others said I'm welcome to send more, but they would only guarantee the adcom would read the stated limit. For these, I typically sent them all anyway. Some said no way. In the no-way scenario, I always sent the committee letter, and then picked from the other letters based on what fit the mission of the school best.

I'm headed to UCSF! Going to DM you some other info.