Committee eLor vs Individual?

[bbeventer]

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I asked my adviser (who is the same as my PI) for an eLor. He is willing to write me one, however, he really wants me to use our schools committee review thingy to get a composite eLor. He says it will give me a better chance of getting into vet school. My don't really like the idea of having a committee of faculty I don't know evaluate me based on my transcript and write me a letter, after all the vet schools are going to see my transcripts. I was wondering if any of you guys have any experience with getting a committee letter, if they are worth the effort, or what the whole deal is with them.

 

[Minnerbelle]

I asked my adviser (who is the same as my PI) for an eLor. He is willing to write me one, however, he really wants me to use our schools committee review thingy to get a composite eLor. He says it will give me a better chance of getting into vet school. My don't really like the idea of having a committee of faculty I don't know evaluate me based on my transcript and write me a letter, after all the vet schools are going to see my transcripts. I was wondering if any of you guys have any experience with getting a committee letter, if they are worth the effort, or what the whole deal is with them.

I thought it was totally worth it for me. But that being said, not every school will take it. And I'm pretty sure definitely not the schools that only want 3 eLORs. So after discussing numerous times with VMCAS, advisor, AND vet schools, I decided that the best course of action would be to submit the committee letter as a 4th paper letter on top of the 3 eLORs (of course, the 3 eLORs were also included in the committee letter too... so that's all confuzzling).

I don't know how it's done at your school, but I needed to have all of my LORs turned into the committee by March ('cause u know... pre-meds need their committee letters by like june...). I had to turn in lots of questionnaires and meet with my committee letter writer (and do a mock interview) for her to get to know me well. So this person not only got my answers to the most proby questions, along with my stats and all that jazz, but was privy to all the LORs that were written on my behalf. Of all my LOR writers, she had the biggest pool of info about me to draw from. So I really liked that. But yeah... check the LOR requirements for the schools you're applying to. If they require eLORs... then you prob can't use it anyway. There's no way that a composite letter will fit in within the character limits of an eLOR. It's really not a big deal if you don't get one either, so I'm not sure if you think it's worth the trouble. For med schools, it's like a red flag for someone to not get a committee letter if their UG offers it. Not at all like that for vet schools.

 

[bbeventer]

Thanks Minnerbelle! That is very helpful. 👍