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I'm a non-traditional student and have been out of undergrad now for about 10 years. Do I STILL need a committee letter from my undergraduate university? Can someone help me with that?
Committee Letters
- Thread starter Unis
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You probably do need one if your school has a premedical committee since the committee letter is needed to explain any academic "incidents" (cheating, alcohol citations, academic probation, etc) that may have occurred while you were a student. Even if you have a clean record, if you don't use one, the medical schools might think that you're trying to hide something. You should contact the academic adviser's office at your school and try to get in touch with a premedical counselor.
N
njbmd
If you can't get a committee letter (logistics), then explain why you don't have one and go with what you have. If you can easily obtain a committee letter then do so but if you can't, you can't. Many schools, especially if the committee didn't exist when you were an undergraduate, will not require that you have one. for someone ten years out, the committee might not have been there when you were there or getting back to your undergraduate institution might cause a severe hardship. Check with the schools that you anticipate applying to and see if your circumstances will allow waiver of the committee letter. Do this soon because some undergraduate pre-med committees require that you come in for an interview with those slots often fill up fast and fill up early.
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- Attending Physician
If it's been 10 years since you were in undergrad you don't really need a committee letter.
But the committee letters have several upsides:
1)You get to include in your letter packet usually upto 6 letters in addition to your composite letter, even if the school you're applying to has a max limit of letters below that.
2)You're free from requirements on who the letters are from. For instance, most schools require two letters from academic professors. But because I used a committee I got away with one letter from a professor.
3)Most pre-med committees are great resources for other parts of admissions process. Mine was great, although I've heard stories of bad ones.
4)They can describe other things about you that might not be in letters. My committee had me do three interviews with committee members. They asked me questions about almost every aspect of my life and record. They explicitly sought out things from my experience (even those that I didn't have room to put on my applications) to highlight in the composite letter.
The one major downside I see to committee letters is that you are on someone else's timetable for when the letter is submitted. In my situation my committee didn't release letters until August which delayed application completion dates. And I've heard nightmare scenarios about committee letters being delayed even later than that.
But in the end, it's up to you what you think will work best for you.
But the short answer is I don't think it will harm your application to not go the committee letter route. If it's what you feel most comfortable with then it should be fine. Just make sure you run it by each school so they are aware. But I've never heard of any school not allowing a 10year post grad to just send in the three LORs on their own.
But the committee letters have several upsides:
1)You get to include in your letter packet usually upto 6 letters in addition to your composite letter, even if the school you're applying to has a max limit of letters below that.
2)You're free from requirements on who the letters are from. For instance, most schools require two letters from academic professors. But because I used a committee I got away with one letter from a professor.
3)Most pre-med committees are great resources for other parts of admissions process. Mine was great, although I've heard stories of bad ones.
4)They can describe other things about you that might not be in letters. My committee had me do three interviews with committee members. They asked me questions about almost every aspect of my life and record. They explicitly sought out things from my experience (even those that I didn't have room to put on my applications) to highlight in the composite letter.
The one major downside I see to committee letters is that you are on someone else's timetable for when the letter is submitted. In my situation my committee didn't release letters until August which delayed application completion dates. And I've heard nightmare scenarios about committee letters being delayed even later than that.
But in the end, it's up to you what you think will work best for you.
But the short answer is I don't think it will harm your application to not go the committee letter route. If it's what you feel most comfortable with then it should be fine. Just make sure you run it by each school so they are aware. But I've never heard of any school not allowing a 10year post grad to just send in the three LORs on their own.
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- Pre-Medical
I'm curious what people think about these two options:
1) a committee letter from my undergrad institution where I graduated 8 years ago
vs.
2) a committee letter from my post-bacc premed program that I will complete this year
Since I cannot have two committee letters, my plan is to have 2 LORs submitted by professors from undergrad to my post-bacc committee. I don't have any major explaining to do about my undergrad career other than that my GPA is lower than I'd like, I changed majors twice, and I took longer than expected to graduate.
Does anyone think that #1 is a better option?
Thank you.
1) a committee letter from my undergrad institution where I graduated 8 years ago
vs.
2) a committee letter from my post-bacc premed program that I will complete this year
Since I cannot have two committee letters, my plan is to have 2 LORs submitted by professors from undergrad to my post-bacc committee. I don't have any major explaining to do about my undergrad career other than that my GPA is lower than I'd like, I changed majors twice, and I took longer than expected to graduate.
Does anyone think that #1 is a better option?
Thank you.
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- Attending Physician
I don't think there's any difference. Go with the one you like better. I'd imagine the post-bac committee will know you better because it's recent so they're better qualified to write a strong letter.
I'd go for:
2) a committee letter from my post-bacc premed program that I will complete this year
It's better to have a more recent committee letter from reputable post-bac premed program. For one, your professors will still remember you, and beside that, 8 years is a long time. People completely change after 8 years, so if you've become more mature, hardworking, etc. it's just better to have a committee that can point out those qualities.
2) a committee letter from my post-bacc premed program that I will complete this year
It's better to have a more recent committee letter from reputable post-bac premed program. For one, your professors will still remember you, and beside that, 8 years is a long time. People completely change after 8 years, so if you've become more mature, hardworking, etc. it's just better to have a committee that can point out those qualities.
Right, I should point out that you should go out of your way in getting a committee letter within reasonable limits. If you live in Mongolia right now but attended school in the US, it probably won't be necessary for you to fly back and try to contact the premed committee in person (this is also the case if the premed committee didn't exist back when you attended school). Otherwise, if your school is a 30 minute drive from where you live, it's probably a good idea to go there in person and talk with the premed advisor.
