Can we update LOR on AMCAS/TMDSAS?

[Pigglyjuff]

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When I asked my three LOR writers to write a LOR for me, I told them it's for a post-bacc as a means for medical school. They all knew medical school was my end goal, but now I'm wondering if the letter contains remnants of post-bacc in there, if that is not wanted from adcoms. I'll ask them today to update the letter through Interfolio, but will AMCAS accept the switch? How does it work with that service?

 

[DAPI]

When I asked my three LOR writers to write a LOR for me, I told them it's for a post-bacc as a means for medical school. They all knew medical school was my end goal, but now I'm wondering if the letter contains remnants of post-bacc in there, if that is not wanted from adcoms. I'll ask them today to update the letter through Interfolio, but will AMCAS accept the switch? How does it work with that service?

There are a few scenarios depending on where you are in the process.

1) If you have already clicked submit to be verified or are verified and you have already assigned letters to schools, you cannot update them.

2) If you have already click submit to be verified or are verified and you have not assigned letters to schools, you cannot update them per say, but you could send new letters to new letter spots and just assigned the new letters to schools.

3) If you have not clicked submit to be verified you can probably delete letters, even if AMCAS has received them (I'm not 100% sure though), or you could do #2 if you cannot delete them.

Hope that helps.

 

[Pigglyjuff]

There are a few scenarios depending on where you are in the process.

1) If you have already clicked submit to be verified or are verified and you have already assigned letters to schools, you cannot update them.

2) If you have already click submit to be verified or are verified and you have not assigned letters to schools, you cannot update them per say, but you could send new letters to new letter spots and just assigned the new letters to schools.

3) If you have not clicked submit to be verified you can probably delete letters, even if AMCAS has received them (I'm not 100% sure though), or you could do #2 if you cannot delete them.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for your help. The LOR of are really good from my profs, at least I have that. But do you think I shot my self in the foot now for MD? I applied to post-bacs in March so it seemed intuitive to send them to medical school when I applied a month ago. The good thing I have going is that at least for DO schools they come straight from Interfolio, whew!

 

[Praefectus]

For some reason, I tried to add another letter and the application wouldn't let me add schools. Am I doing something wrong?

 

[DAPI]

Thanks for your help. The LOR of are really good from my profs, at least I have that. But do you think I shot my self in the foot now for MD? I applied to post-bacs in March so it seemed intuitive to send them to medical school when I applied a month ago. The good thing I have going is that at least for DO schools they come straight from Interfolio, whew!

Well if the letter says, "I strongly recommend this candidate for a post-bacc program" or something similar to that, I am going to say yes, you may have screwed yourself (IMO). I say this because most students do post-bacc's because their application is not strong enough for med school and need to improve it in some way, so an AdCom is going to have no idea in where you stand in that professor's opinion in competitiveness for medical school. They may even see it as the professor not thinking you are competent for med school as they just said they think you need to do a post-bacc.

I feel like if the professor wrote these specifically for post bacc programs, you could be screwed. If they are generic letters, it might be okay, but if you told them you need new letters for med school, they are probably good. -I'm not really sure which it is based on your post.

Maybe an adcom like LizzyM or Catalyst can chime in here if they have ever seen something similar.

For some reason, I tried to add another letter and the application wouldn't let me add schools. Am I doing something wrong?

No idea, never done this. Maybe add the letter w/o assigning schools initially and then in the Med School section add the letters.

 

[LizzyM]

Well if the letter says, "I strongly recommend this candidate for a post-bacc program" or something similar to that, I am going to say yes, you may have screwed yourself (IMO). I say this because most students do post-bacc's because their application is not strong enough for med school and need to improve it in some way, so an AdCom is going to have no idea in where you stand in that professor's opinion in competitiveness for medical school. They may even see it as the professor not thinking you are competent for med school as they just said they think you need to do a post-bacc.

I feel like if the professor wrote these specifically for post bacc programs, you could be screwed. If they are generic letters, it might be okay, but if you told them you need new letters for med school, they are probably good. -I'm not really sure which it is based on your post.

Maybe an adcom like LizzyM or Catalyst can chime in here if they have ever seen something similar.

I often see generic letters that close with something along the lines of, "Any graduate or professional program would be lucky to have JazzyHands as a student. He is a hard worker who will excel in any field he chooses."

 

[Pigglyjuff]

I often see generic letters that close with something along the lines of, "Any graduate or professional program would be lucky to have JazzyHands as a student. He is a hard worker who will excel in any field he chooses."

Are you insinuating that although my position for AMCAS (I think TMDSAS will update 🙂) may be iffy if the term post-bacc comes up along with medical school, it's still better than a generic letter?

One of my LOR writers has been with my whole process of wanting to do medicine including my grad program now as a post-bacc. I'm confident she at least went far beyond the post-bacc element and into medical school.

 

[LizzyM]

Are you insinuating that although my position for AMCAS (I think TMDSAS will update 🙂) may be iffy if the term post-bacc comes up along with medical school, it's still better than a generic letter?

One of my LOR writers has been with my whole process of wanting to do medicine including my grad program now as a post-bacc. I'm confident she at least went far beyond the post-bacc element and into medical school.

No, I'm saying that some writers will write a letter recommending an applicant for advanced study without being specific as some students change from dentistry to medicine, to osteopathy to podiatry or from medicine to biochemistry or whatever.

I very seldom see students who do post-baccs (except those who majored in something totally different such as film studies or music performance with virtually no pre-reqs) so my experience with letters written for post-bacc plus medical school are rare. Furthermore, most of the formal post-bacc programs (Columbia, Goucher, Mills) have very good "committee" letters that their students use.

 

[MicroSteph]

LizzyM, how do you view generic letters? What if a student has all generic letters?

 

[LizzyM]

LizzyM, how do you view generic letters? What if a student has all generic letters?

I'm looking at the middle paragraphs of the letter that describe the activities that the applicant engaged in and the characteristics that they demonstrated. The major thing I look for in the closing paragraph is how strong the summary is. We have "I strongly recommend" "I very strongly recommend" "I most strongly recomment" "I give my highest recommendation". Unless you know the code, you woudn't know that "strongly" is the weakest recommendation for that writer and "my highest" is the best. We also have some who will say that someone is within the top 1/3 or top 1/4 or top 5% or top 2% of all undergrads that the professor has had in class over the past 5, 10, 40 years at X University.

Whether the last sentence refers to medical school or something else is of less importance although if I pick up on something odd I might ask about it in interview (such as recommending the applicant for dental school).

 

[DAPI]

I'm looking at the middle paragraphs of the letter that describe the activities that the applicant engaged in and the characteristics that they demonstrated. The major thing I look for in the closing paragraph is how strong the summary is. We have "I strongly recommend" "I very strongly recommend" "I most strongly recomment" "I give my highest recommendation". Unless you know the code, you woudn't know that "strongly" is the weakest recommendation for that writer and "my highest" is the best. We also have some who will say that someone is within the top 1/3 or top 1/4 or top 5% or top 2% of all undergrads that the professor has had in class over the past 5, 10, 40 years at X University.

Whether the last sentence refers to medical school or something else is of less importance although if I pick up on something odd I might ask about it in interview (such as recommending the applicant for dental school).

Now this is some good insider information. I wish I would have known this when requesting my LORs, especially for my international PI and others not so familiar with med school applications so you could let them know the ranges. 🙁

 

[LizzyM]

Now this is some good insider information. I wish I would have known this when requesting my LORs, especially for my international PI and others not so familiar with med school applications so you could let them know the ranges. 🙁

This mostly applies to people who write dozens of letters every year. Each has their own set of adjectives. Some committees even tell us what proportion of the letters they write are tip top, next level down, middle level, low level and lowest.

 

[Pigglyjuff]

Hmm, so I'm not 100% out of the MD game applying this cycle assuming a few of my 3 letters mention "post-bacc/graduate?"