Committee Letter vs Individual Letters of Rec.

[heliscomo]

Hey guys,
I know there are a number of threads about this, but I'm just kind of freaking out. I go to a school which asks us to send individual letters of recommendation to the pre-health office by May of the year we are applying. They then make a committe letter and send it out. I don't know exactly what the committee letter looks like--if it is a compilation of quotes from the individual letters or if they actually attach the individual letters--but I know that that is our process.
So I gave the pre health office the letter request form to send the committee letter, and on AMCAS I indicated that it was a committee letter etc. But now I'm wondering if I need to send individual letters too? I am planning on having a letter sent in a month or so because I just started a new full-time job (for my gap year) and one of the doctors said he would write me a reference. So I plan to send that later as an addendum/attachment to my already submitted app.
I just want to know if I need to email my individual letter writers and tell them to send their letters directly to AMCAS now? I received verification from my pre health committee at school that they had all my individual; letters (two major professors, one science, one physician/PI on project) months ago. So I thought that I was good to go with the committee letter alone but now I'm unsure...
Thanks!!

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[kpcrew]

I think the individual letters were included in the committee letter in my school. In your description, it sounds like you just met that doctor. It doesn't seem that he can write a good letter on your behalf if he doesn't know you well.

 

[BABSstudent]

Almost always better to go with the committee letter since that is what medical schools seem to prefer. And the letter varies by school. My school assesses my competitiveness, grades, personality traits, etc. that would make us excellent addition to any medical school and then uses quotes from the other letters to prove it. All letters are included in the committee letter and are sent to AMCAS as a group. When I ask for the committee letter to be send to a school, all the letters are sent in addition since they came as a packet. You cannot have AMCAS separate the packet, so if you want different letters sent to different schools then you have to have multiple letter packets sent.

 

[WorldChanger36]

Comittee letter > letter packet= 2 science and1 non science. End of Line.