Committee Letter question

[deleted700760]

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I just graduated from my state university two months ago. I am currently in the process of submitting my application and retaking my MCAT in august. My school has a health professions committee that writes committee letters for the MD applicants, however, I do not meet their requirements, which is a 3.6 science and overall GPA. my science GPA is only 3.5, so I am only 0.1 away. They are very strict with their requirements and from what I was told and heard, it seems like if you do not have a committee letter from your school, it would really hurt your application and chances of getting accepted, is this true? My GPA is ok, 3.5 Science, 3.63 overall. My EC is pretty stellar 2 years of research experience, grants and fellowship from my school and did 300 hours of community services, mentored and tutored high school and college students, on top of a few months of internship and shadowing here and there. I was told to just go for DO school since I would not be able to get a committee letter, how much would it really hurt it? Please any feedback would be appreicated

 

[Winged Scapula]

Moving to Pre-Allo

 

[Cotterpin]

I doubt not having a committee letter is going to completely destroy your chances at MD all by itself. If you're really worried about it, apply to both DO and MD schools.

 

[chemist16]

I know of people who have been very successful applying without committee letters (think top 10 successful). But they refused to go the committee route not because of grades but for other objections. I think the 3.6 cutoff is pretty arbitrary, especially since a 3.59 is essentially the same as a 3.6, and I doubt any med schools use that cutoff anyway, so they may understand why you don't have a committee letter. Now, if we were talking about a 3.29 vs. a 3.30, some people may think that a 3.30 cutoff is reasonable but a 3.6 cutoff is less defensible.