Some schools care most of them not. I have seen this that they accept individual letters if your school doesn't write committee letter. Did your undergrad have one?
My undergrad school writes one depending on if they think you're a strong applicant and I currently don't meet their requirements. For the school I'm doing a postbacc in right now, I also don't meet their requirements because they want 3 rec letters from their own school from professors in different disciples. Do you know if dental schools accept individual letters if you don't meet the requirements for the committee letter?
Every dental school accepts LOR’s. Some schools don’t accept committee letters
Of course they accept individual letters and if you ask me strong individual letters are better than an average committee letter. Only one or two schools maybe care if its written by committee or not. Focus on the other aspects of your application. You should be fine with letters.
Okay, thank you. I was just a bit concerned because for some schools they say "strongly prefer" committee letter, but if no such committee is available then individual letters are okay. So would that include if my school HAS a committee program, but I just don't qualify for it?
If you do not qualify for the committee program and cannot get a committee letter, then sending individuals LORs is 100% fine. The only questionable scenario is if an applicant is able to obtain a committee letter and instead chooses to send individual letters to dental schools that specify preferring a committee letter.
Ya and they also say letters from 4-year universities only, but still get accepted with letters from community college professors.
Two of my letters were written by CC professors who I did significant ECs with.
Very true. My comment was mostly to inform the OP to look into the individual admissions policies. Most schools I’ve seen will take either individual letters or a committee letter but a few (Stony Brook for example), explicitly state that they prefer the committee letter if it is offered.
agreed. I very briefly participated in some part of our admissions committee stuff. at least at my school, its a lot more informal than it may seem.
Yep
Thanks for the insights. In my case, I only had 1 letter from a science professor (Also my only college letter). I had 3 other strong letters that really helped my case. Based on your comment, and on my and @DocStranger ‘s experiences, I think OP will probably do just fine. On the other hand, a committee letter could be helpful if individual letters are weak.
From your experiences, do any schools attach individual letters to their committee letters? My undergrad’s Pre-health committee informed us that they did this but I’m not sure if this is the case at other schools.
What do you mean by 'attach'? I didn't have access to the internal view of AADSAS, but my understanding over here is they basically do a print out of your entire app and separate it into PS, Resume/ECs, and letters.
Could vary on your specific UG school, but in my opinion the vast majority of pre-health advisors are wrong on a whole lot of things.
I mean the committee letter submission also includes the full original letters of references used in the preparation of the committee letter. As I understand it, the letter was a composite committee letter where they referenced and quoted the individual letters of reference.
If you don't mind me asking, which schools did you apply to?
