Committee letter... Who needs it?!

Started by WhereMyLiberalsAt
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WhereMyLiberalsAt

WhereMyLiberalsAt

Full Member
7+ Year Member
So are people without committee letters at a disadvantage? My school doesn't have a committee (use to but got rid of it for some reason), but my friend at a school near by says his school offers one. He also told me his advisers say it looks bad if you don't have one. Committee letters sound so lame! It's one more bueracratic thing to deal with! Will I be looked at differently sense my school doesn't even offer it?
 
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getfat said:
Committee letters stink but its a lot harder to get 2 Science Professor and 1 non-science professor to write a LOR.
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That's the thing though! To get his committee letter he has to have 3 LOR.... Then they add those LOR to their LOR... Its a LOR inside of a LOR.... If Leo showed up I'd swear we were in Inception!
 
So how the committee letter works is kind of what you said. With my school (idk if there is any other way in schools) it's a LOR written after they have an interview with you, much like med school interviews, and they write the letter with that in mind, with your other LORs in mind, with all your information, basically all the things you need for med school primary applications.

For me it was pretty good practice for actually doing my applications for AACOMAS, helped me with interviews and the primary application as a whole, but I recommend you still get that committee letter while you're in school. When I applied for the letter, I had already graduated from my school, so I had to go back and do the interview in person with them (I live 8 hours away from my school if that helps paint a picture for you guys). I got lucky that a friend of mine was happy to have me for the week that I was there. It was my best option choice and I wouldn't redo it, but keep it in mind if going back to your school isn't an option later on.

However, the reason people say it's bad if you don't have a committee letter (If I recall right from my pre-med advisors telling me) is because it kind of implies that you didn't try to apply for your committee's letter.....if your school has a committee in the first place. If your school doesn't have one, then y'know, you kinda can't get a committee letter, they can't penalize you for that because you don't have that resource. If that's the case, take note of schools you're interested in and keep track of what kind of letters they want, make sure you can gather the alternates to the committee letter.

I've heard (don't know personally, so if anyone can help me out on this it'd be great) that if you don't have a committee letter, and your school HAS a committee, then yeah it kinda looks bad. Again it kinda questions why you didn't apply for one (and you better have a response if they actually ask that, a GOOD one).

TL;DR, particularly for OP: If you don't have a committee letter because your school doesn't have a committee, then it's not the end of the world, just do your research and plan accordingly for your letters.
 
Some med schools want letters beyond the committee letter (like physician), so it really isn't a big deal if you don't have committee and use individual letters instead. Committee is just to some extent easier, BUT some schools don't do them until August or require MCAT scores or some other requirement that could delay an app.

Just be sure they are from professors (at least 2 science and 1 non-science ones...seems to fit most requirements) that taught you. They should be on official university letterhead AND have original signatures, as some schools are highly picky about such. Ask early and stay on top of the writers in a polite way.

Best of Luck
 
cjcarter said:
My school had a committee and I chose to not use their services. Didn't get brought up once during my interviews. You'll be fine OP!
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Thanks for clarifying that! I just went with what my school said because I wasn't sure about if schools actually asked about the letter.
 
Also, there are plenty of nontrads who have been out of college for sometime or applicants who maybe developed an interest in medicine after they could even have a chance score a committee letter. To me, it doesn't seem logical to nitpick on anyone who doesn't have a committee letter for those reasons if their school offers the service.
 
If you can get one without it delaying your app then do it but don't think it's the end of the world if you don't have one. I didn't get the committee letter and I've gotten 8 II.
 
I didn't have one, I was a transfer student, my school required 7 letters of recommendation which was just impossible and absurd.
 
DO schools don't seem to have the same mania for committee LORs as MD schools.

WhereMyLiberalsAt said:
So are people without committee letters at a disadvantage? My school doesn't have a committee (use to but got rid of it for some reason), but my friend at a school near by says his school offers one. He also told me his advisers say it looks bad if you don't have one. Committee letters sound so lame! It's one more bueracratic thing to deal with! Will I be looked at differently sense my school doesn't even offer it?
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cjcarter said:
My school had a committee and I chose to not use their services. Didn't get brought up once during my interviews. You'll be fine OP!
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A committee LOR seems a LOT more bland than receiving an LOR from a Professor with whom you interacted with on a day to day basis. I don't understand why schools like them so much.
 
Committee letters are the worst and totally discriminatory to non trads like myself. My school wouldn't write me one without 3 LOR from my undergrad professors from my pre reqs or upper division bio/chemistry classes. Only two of those teachers still even work there. They were basically trying to make me enroll in their smp (which isn't affiliated with any med school) just to get a committee letter. Both of my state MD schools told me they wouldn't consider me as a serious applicant without one.

Fortunately, DO schools didn't seem to care. I actually just applied with 2 LORs from community college and two physician letters.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
kovalchuk71 said:
A committee LOR seems a LOT more bland than receiving an LOR from a Professor with whom you interacted with on a day to day basis. I don't understand why schools like them so much.
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This is coming from an MD applicant, but my advisors told me that the committee letter is evaluative of readiness for med school, not necessarily advocative.
 
I never used the committee letter, had 2 science LOR, 1 non science, and 2 doctors ones, and got almost 10 interviews, not one of them asked, went to 6 and accepted to all 6
 
I had to get an "ordinary" LOR from one of my professors because as a non trad from a large university, I had trouble getting a professor to even remember me from years ago. He told me straight up that he didnt remember me and he would be writing the letter on how hard his course is, not on me personally. (Cringe) I was completely out of options at that point though and definately struggled getting my required letters in order for my school to write the committe letter. Not sure if it was even worth the committe letter at that point. Do the med schools see the committee letter AND the individual letters? Thats what I was told by my school at least.
 
If you feel that you can avoid the committee letter by seeing its importance (or lack thereof) in different application situations, do so. I have zero regrets not putting myself through that stupidity. It is one of the few hoops you can avoid in this dumb process.
 
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