Certified Mail

[calstudent]

Probably a basic question, but is it a good idea to send the stuff that we send to medical schools by certified mail (I think that's the one where you get a piece of paper back when the mail reaches its destination) or any special mail? (Or, should we just do it by the basic route?)

Thanks!

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[exmike]

Dont use certified mail. Its not worth the hassle and I've heard that if they're not there to receive it it'll get booted back to you. I just use priority w/ delivery confirmation for all of them and never lost a secondary. And I sent in about 40 of them.

 

[pjm]

I used regular first class USPS for secondaries. (although I used a catalog envelope, so I needed two or three stamps.) Then I just called each office to see if they had received it. I sent over 30 packets.

Each packet had a bar-coded ZIP+4 mailing label courtesy of a labelmaker I had at my office. I don't know for certain if this helped the envelope get through, but it looked nice.

I used a spreadsheet to track the latest update I got from each school as the process moved along, and a windows addressbook to record phone #'s, addresses, URLs, and username/passwords.

In most cases the only material I sent was photo/resume/signature/check, because the secondary content was sent over the web. About a quarter of all schools took payment via credit card, so I didn't need to send a check.

All the offices received my USPS mailed stuff without a problem. The only delay came from the LORs, which were sent via email by my premed office (PDF file.) A few schools lost the email and needed it resent.

 

[gaf]

Certified mail gives you proof of postage and date as well. You can also track the package using the number on your receipt.

Registered mail requires a reciptient signature and you get a return receipt.

 

[Dr.LeoSpaceman]

Why not just go with FedEx same day service? This way, with 20 secondaries or so, you can spend about 1200 bucks just in mailing them. Sounds like a winner to me.

But really, I don't see why you would need anything more than priority mail with delivery confirmation. It will cost you like 3 bucks a packet, and you can then even call to make sure it was received.

 

[stinkycheese]

My goodness, FaytlND, will you stop being so insufferable in every thread? And to think I defended you once upon time in the MCAT forum...

 

[ms2209]

I, too, have used priority to send out med school stuff, and I would recommend it!

 

[Dr.LeoSpaceman]

I don't understand how other people can use humor in their posts, and no one jumps all over them. I do it twice, and people are ready to kill me. If people don't like my sense of humor, thats fine, I can handle that. But as for being insufferable, I hardly see how thats the case.