Committee letter?

[Groominator]

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So I've been reading up on vet school requirements, based on what AAVMC says about individual schools. I noticed that many schools want 3 LORs. Some go on to specify that they want vet, and some also say academic and/or employer.

What I'm curious about is the academic part. Are they looking for a pre-med committee letter or a letter from an individual professor? I know MD/DOs want committee letters, but i haven't seen it mentioned either on this board or on AAVMC (although i just started reading, i have to go further in-depth). Is there a preference or requirement than I haven't noticed?

Particularly I'd really rather find an individual professor to do it than to have to rely on my school's committee. My boyfriend has been going through med school applications and they have shown an extreme level of incompetence in getting this thing together, promising the world and then making several schools wait for over a month after his interview to get this thing. And I'm afraid of getting just as screwed by them as he was.

 

[VAgirl]

So I've been reading up on vet school requirements, based on what AAVMC says about individual schools. I noticed that many schools want 3 LORs. Some go on to specify that they want vet, and some also say academic and/or employer.

What I'm curious about is the academic part. Are they looking for a pre-med committee letter or a letter from an individual professor? I know MD/DOs want committee letters, but i haven't seen it mentioned either on this board or on AAVMC (although i just started reading, i have to go further in-depth). Is there a preference or requirement than I haven't noticed?

Particularly I'd really rather find an individual professor to do it than to have to rely on my school's committee. My boyfriend has been going through med school applications and they have shown an extreme level of incompetence in getting this thing together, promising the world and then making several schools wait for over a month after his interview to get this thing. And I'm afraid of getting just as screwed by them as he was.

I haven't seen any vet schools that require a committee letter. (I only applied to 6, but none of those did.) It doesn't seem to be the thing to do in vet med. I personally think pre-med advisors are evil, so I'd avoid them if you can (and in vet med applications it seems that you can).

 

[Truth74]

VMCAS says that you can send in committee letters, but that is not usually what is done.

Letters of Recommendation are from individuals that know you, your goals, and how you would do in vet school. This generally comes from a relationship with the evaluator (countless hours working for/with them or taking more than one of their classes) so that they are able to know who you are. A committee letter does not show this type of a relationship.

Don't get me wrong. If you do a search, you will find that individual evaluators can wait till the last minute and make you stress the same way that a committee would. However, there are opportunities to ask someone else to submit a letter before the deadline, if your number one pick is flaking out. For a committee, that isn't even an option.

The preparation for pre-vets and pre-meds may be similar, but the application processes are very different.

Hope this helps.

 

[efab]

why are premed advisors evil?

 

[Truth74]

why are premed advisor evil?

They aren't necessarily evil. They just have no clue what is required for vet med, they give horrid advice to pre-vetters based on having no clue, and they pit applicants against each other, instead of making each applicant the best that they can be as an individual.

If they made an attempt to try to get the information straight, they wouldn't be so bad.

 

[Groominator]

this is excellent news 🙂
i personally have found the premed office in my school to be very subpar. The advisor seems to be bipolar, takes a ton of vacations a year (i went for two semesters at the school without being able to catch her once because she kept taking days off when i had time to see her!), and she tends to say different information with each visit.

She told me "do a bio major, vet schools like a bio major. med schools want different stuff but vet schools like bio majors." What she should have said is that nearly all vet schools REQUIRE bio, biochem, microbiology, and some require upper electives and genetics (as opposed to most med schools which recommend but dont require the courses). Those courses are default for the bio major at our school ergo it would be smart to do so. i had to figure that one out on my own...

i have found that Tufts and Ross want committee letters. I don't know yet if i'll be applying to those schools. But I'm thinking i might get a committee letter done anyway. I already have some evaluations on file, i just need to add to them and add a resume and a personal statement. Ross is rolling admission from what i've gathered, so i won't miss any deadlines if the letter takes forever to make, at least.

 

[Angelo84]

this is excellent news 🙂
i personally have found the premed office in my school to be very subpar. The advisor seems to be bipolar, takes a ton of vacations a year (i went for two semesters at the school without being able to catch her once because she kept taking days off when i had time to see her!), and she tends to say different information with each visit.

She told me "do a bio major, vet schools like a bio major. med schools want different stuff but vet schools like bio majors." What she should have said is that nearly all vet schools REQUIRE bio, biochem, microbiology, and some require upper electives and genetics (as opposed to most med schools which recommend but dont require the courses). Those courses are default for the bio major at our school ergo it would be smart to do so. i had to figure that one out on my own...

i have found that Tufts and Ross want committee letters. I don't know yet if i'll be applying to those schools. But I'm thinking i might get a committee letter done anyway. I already have some evaluations on file, i just need to add to them and add a resume and a personal statement. Ross is rolling admission from what i've gathered, so i won't miss any deadlines if the letter takes forever to make, at least.

At least when I applied Tufts wanted a letter from a vet and then two letters from professors. There was no mention of a committee letter. I would say you are probably better of going with professors who know you well than a committe letter. But double check with the school!

 

[Pandacinny]

RE Tufts: When I applied this year, I emailed asking if I could use two vets and one professor. They said that would be fine - that I should use whichever recs work best for me.

 

[Malhi]

RE Tufts: When I applied this year, I emailed asking if I could use two vets and one professor. They said that would be fine - that I should use whichever recs work best for me.

Really? When I called them with this issue (substituting a vet rec for one of the professors recs) they told me that I had to have two professors or at least someone who knew me in an educational setting.

They even suggested trying to get in touch with a professor from the school where I got my bachelor's degree in 2006 because I didn't feel that I had such a good relationship with the professors where I am now.

 

[Groominator]

http://www.tufts.edu/vet/dvm/application.html

this is what the Tufts site says:

Letters of Evaluation

Three letters of evaluation, one from each of the following areas:

• A pre-veterinary, pre-medical or pre-health professions committee, or from a dean, advisor or faculty member in your major or who taught a required pre-professional science course.
• A faculty member in your major or who taught a required pre-professional science course. Applicants with graduate work should have an appropriate graduate school faculty member write this letter.
• A veterinarian, research scientist or project leader with whom you have had considerable experience.

http://www.rossu.edu/veterinary-school/admissions/getstarted.cfm

this is what Ross says:

Admissions Criteria

To be considered for admission to Ross University, our Admissions Committee will look at a variety of factors in determining suitability for our program including:

• Cumulative GPA
• GRE exam
• GPA in pre-requisite coursework
• Competitiveness of the undergraduate school and curriculum
• Pre-veterinary committee evaluation
• Two letters of recommendation
• Experience working with animals
• Personal essay
• Personal interview

 

[Pandacinny]

Malhi, wow, I sure hope I kept that email! I'm going to go through everything tomorrow, but if not then I guess it'll be no Tufts for me this year. I haven't got another faculty member to ask on such short notice and my adviser didn't have a really strong relationship with me.

 

[nyanko]

this is what the Tufts site says:

It doesn't say they require one, though or even that they prefer it to a dean, advisor or faculty member who taught a pre-professional course.

 

[Malhi]

It doesn't say they require one, though or even that they prefer it to a dean, advisor or faculty member who taught a pre-professional course.

Nyanko- I called Tufts to confirm if I absolutely had to have two educators (or a dean or an advisor). They seemed pretty inflexible about it.

Pandacinny-If you got an email from Tufts, definitely root around for it or try and recall the person who informed you of this. I don't think it should disqualify you if someone from the school actually told you it would be ok!👍

 

[Pandacinny]

Pandacinny-If you got an email from Tufts, definitely root around for it or try and recall the person who informed you of this. I don't think it should disqualify you if someone from the school actually told you it would be ok!👍

Ugh, the email was literally like six months ago! I can't seem to find it, but I'm going to sift through my archives today and see what I can dig up. My fear is that I'm somehow mis-remembering or confusing it with something a different vet school sent me. I'll be disappointed if I can't apply to Tufts - I really like their program and they have a couple of vets teaching there who I'd love to work with. Still, it won't be the end of the world since I probably wouldn't have gotten in anyway. 🙄

 

[nyanko]

Nyanko- I called Tufts to confirm if I absolutely had to have two educators (or a dean or an advisor). They seemed pretty inflexible about it.

No I meant they don't NEED a committee letter, not two from a dean/advisor/faculty. It's clear that they want 2 from educational sources.

 

[Malhi]

No I meant they don't NEED a committee letter, not two from a dean/advisor/faculty. It's clear that they want 2 from educational sources.

Oops! 😀