My school has a pre-med committee that writes composite letters and sends them to schools. Is this the only letter med school want, or should I have additional letters, also?
Composite letter, anyone?
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Most undergrad institutions that have a pre-health committee usually have the pre-health advisors write a cover letter for their applicants. My undergrad had that, but I've also had several research mentors including the PI at my workplace right now who I felt would write me really strong letters (they never showed me the letters, but voiced it to me.). Because I wasn't sure if a one-page cover letter would do it, as each mentor knew me in a different capacity, I sent in all of my other letters in addition to the cover letter. If you feel like your other recommenders would write about different aspect of you, be sure to send in those additional letters to the ad-coms. Most secondary apps will have you designate what letters you are sending to them.
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As far as I know, the way it works almost everywhere is you have people send letters of recommendation to your pre-med committee. The committee or advisor then writes a composite cover letter -- "composite" because it is a summary of what the other people said. At least at my school the advisor then attaches all of the individual letters after the composite letter and sends that package out to the schools.
You should get in touch with your pre-med committee and ask what kinds of LORs they want from you. Some have requirements regarding science/non-science profs, people from within the school and outside the school, etc.
You should get in touch with your pre-med committee and ask what kinds of LORs they want from you. Some have requirements regarding science/non-science profs, people from within the school and outside the school, etc.
Ok, basically I have this committee letter already written, but I would like to have some others ready to send also (basketball coach, physician who knows me well and I've worked with) and I wasn't sure if I was allowed to send more beyond the committee letter. Do some schools require you to have a certain number as a minimum?
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tigress said:
My school did the same thing. One summary letter along with the original letters as well.
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my school has pre-med advisors who write your composite which is apporoved by the comittee. they do not send in the individual letters unless they are specifically requested by the school. however, our composites are far more extensive than a cover letter or a summary. that composite also includes ALL letters you want, so your coaches and outside doctors are in there as well.
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Your best bet is to double check with the individual schools. Most only require the composite letter, but accept additional letters (as long as they weren't included in the composite letter). But most schools also have a maximum, and you don't want to exceed that.
My committee might be a little different. I didn't have any LOR's sent to them at all. The committee is comprised of a lot of teachers that I've had classes with, and they basically just write a letter. I turned in a resume and list of activities/awards and a copy of my personal statement so they could look at that while writing it. And I was allowed to send two people to the meeting to speak on my behalf. So I guess those two representatives kind of take the place of LOR's, but in any case, they don't have any additional letters to send along with the committee letter.
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Much depends on your undergrad institution.
Some write a composite letter with quotes from the LORs you submitted. The LORs are appended to the composite letter.
Some composite letters include the full text of every LOR submitted.
Some committees send a LOR that basically says how great the school is, your class rank, etc, and any other LORs are included in the package sent to a med school. (as well they should because the committee letter isn't much to go on).
Some schools don't send a composite letter at all. (Some little schools don't even have a pre-med committee).
One big warning: your composite letter and the additional LORs in your file will be sent the following year (or whenever), if you reapply. So, a bad letter can haunt you forever. The only time I've seen them go away is from a certain post-bach program that sends its own composite letter that negates the need to send letters from the undergrad institution.
Some write a composite letter with quotes from the LORs you submitted. The LORs are appended to the composite letter.
Some composite letters include the full text of every LOR submitted.
Some committees send a LOR that basically says how great the school is, your class rank, etc, and any other LORs are included in the package sent to a med school. (as well they should because the committee letter isn't much to go on).
Some schools don't send a composite letter at all. (Some little schools don't even have a pre-med committee).
One big warning: your composite letter and the additional LORs in your file will be sent the following year (or whenever), if you reapply. So, a bad letter can haunt you forever. The only time I've seen them go away is from a certain post-bach program that sends its own composite letter that negates the need to send letters from the undergrad institution.
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My school's premedical committee has us provide them with grades / mcat, a personal statement, an essay about shadowing experience, list of work / volunteer experiences, list any books / papers read that have to do with medicine etc. We then have two one-on-one interviews followed by a committee interview. They then write up an evaluation / recommendation letter based on all of these things. The evaluation was written by people who did not know me before the application process.
This committee application was very similar to a medical school application, which is a good and a bad thing. One of my interviewers commented that my committee letter looked just like one of their applicant evaluations that they wrote up after interviews and that it didn't really tell them anything that wasn't already on my application. It just confirmed what I had already said. Schools take evaluations like this very seriously from what I have been told, but it is good to augment this with a more personal letter from someone that you have had a relationship with. I sent in a letter from my PI with mine.
This committee application was very similar to a medical school application, which is a good and a bad thing. One of my interviewers commented that my committee letter looked just like one of their applicant evaluations that they wrote up after interviews and that it didn't really tell them anything that wasn't already on my application. It just confirmed what I had already said. Schools take evaluations like this very seriously from what I have been told, but it is good to augment this with a more personal letter from someone that you have had a relationship with. I sent in a letter from my PI with mine.
