Bad committee letter?

[OrGoMan]

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My school has a pre med committee, but basically I believe that 1 of the 4 people on it has it in for me, and that person can seriously fu*k up the letter. All together, by the time I apply in about a year, I will have about 4-5 good letters of rec. What should I do? Should I not waive my right to see the letter, and make sure that its not bad, or not ask for one at all?? I hear that med schools look down on both of these options.. I really wish I can go w/o the com letter, and just have all my other letters sent in.. Will the schools be pissed because they have to read all these letters?? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[medicomel]

I would withdraw it and find somebody else if it's possible. I'm currently in the same boat, and I'm trying to find another person.

First things first, call your pre-health advisor and kindly explain the situation. Ask him/her if it would be possible to toss that one if it's bad.

 

[kylahs]

premed committees suck.

a central office to send all LORs is a good idea. but a committee letter?
they do not know me.

 

[iamgoaloriented]

My school has a pre med committee, but basically I believe that 1 of the 4 people on it has it in for me, and that person can seriously fu*k up the letter. All together, by the time I apply in about a year, I will have about 4-5 good letters of rec. What should I do? Should I not waive my right to see the letter, and make sure that its not bad, or not ask for one at all?? I hear that med schools look down on both of these options.. I really wish I can go w/o the com letter, and just have all my other letters sent in.. Will the schools be pissed because they have to read all these letters?? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

I thought the same thing but my committe gave me their highest ranking. I don't know your exact situation but you are probably just a little paranoid, as I was.

People tend to write good letters (if they don't think as highly of you they wont right as strong of a letter, but wont say bad things in it), and even if one person on the committe hates you they still are expected to be professional, and the other members of the committee are there to make sure they do that (and they will give their say and hopefully be objective).

You should always waive your right to see letters. It's expected and if you read what in your letter what does it matter, its still there. Your advisor should be able to tell you the general content of your letter.

Committess actually save you a good bit of work, and med schools generally like you to use them, so you will probably be expected to have very good reason not to use it (if you tell committes that you thought your teacher didnt like you more likely than not it will make you look bad).

 

[fakin' the funk]

My school has a pre med committee, but basically I believe that 1 of the 4 people on it has it in for me, and that person can seriously fu*k up the letter. All together, by the time I apply in about a year, I will have about 4-5 good letters of rec. What should I do? Should I not waive my right to see the letter, and make sure that its not bad, or not ask for one at all?? I hear that med schools look down on both of these options.. I really wish I can go w/o the com letter, and just have all my other letters sent in.. Will the schools be pissed because they have to read all these letters?? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

My committee interview was about 2 months after I'd decided to go into medicine. I didn't know the "game" or the "rules" of applying to med school and what this or other interviews would be like. It was approximately 15 minutes long and the 2 faculty and 1 pre-health advisor promptly tore me apart, accusing me of being immature, ill-prepared, etc., at least part of which was true. The rest of what goes into their writing of the committee letter (individual LORs, grades, short essays) was strong for me but I know that I got an F on this interview.

So what to do? I use Interfolio and always send my individual LORs with the committee letter and hope for the best. In interviews I've mentioned the "extenuating circumstances" of my premature committee interview when it was appropriate to do so. It is impossible to know the nature of that letter; you can only guess. I'd say, take your chances and use it.

That being said...committees and pre-health advisors SUCK A FAT ONE.

 

[Pinkertinkle]

Sounds like you guys should have bribed your committee members.

 

[OrGoMan]

I just know that 1 of the guys on the committee has a serrrrriouuuusss prejudice towards me.. I just want to figure out a way around the committee or him, or maybe it is better not to WAIVE MY RIGHT TO SEE IT??
Do you think that looks terribly bad if i dont waive my right, and make sure its a decent one? If there is a committee letter, do adcoms not look at all he individual letters because everything from them is included in the com letteR?

 

[v-tach]

That being said...committees and pre-health advisors SUCK A FAT ONE.

It depends. At my school, we get to CHOOSE who will be on our committee to write recommendations, and then the pre-health office takes care of putting everything together. This allows us to have people who actually know us and with whom we get along well to write them--avoids most of the problems mentioned in the other posts.

 

[OrGoMan]

wish my school had that kind of committee where u choose, thats just smart.. You dont have to worry about whether you should waive or not..

 

[marr]

I would send in individual letters instead of a committee because a negative review by a committee member is more detrimental to your application. You can always say that you didn't use your committee because you missed the deadline. By the way waive your rights!!!!

 

[salsita1421]

Send individual letters...you have come to far in the process to let a committee member ruin your chances. At the very least provide extra letter from professors that know you well enough and are kind enough to support your application.

 

[Pinkertinkle]

Send individual letters...you have come to far in the process to let a committee member ruin your chances. At the very least provide extra letter from professors that know you well enough and are kind enough to support your application.

A lot of med schools require a committee letter if the school has a committee, and since there are many people applying from each school, it'll be pretty obvious which schools have a committee. They'll definitely want to know why someone would try to circumvent the committee.