Cost of Letters

[HawkeyeBFP]

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I'm a little taken aback by our school's policy on letters of recommendation--the prehealth office does them and charges per letter, with the cost higher for post-baccalaureates and a sliding scale that INCREASES as you need more letters.

This seems odd to me. Is this the usual practice?

Thanks!

Hawkeye

 

[Eraserhead]

That sounds evil to me-- my school it was just 6 bucks per school and they were prompt and added a cover letter with my ID information and they also keep a running list of where letters were sent, so I figured 6 was reasonable.

 

[glj79]

my school doesn't even charge (not even for postage). i guess they figure we paid enough in tuition 🙂

 

[finnpipette]

yea...that's kind of a rip. for my school, they send 20 free mailings with cover letter. plus, you can keep track of all mailings on the web. after that, each letter is 5 bucks.

 

[Eraserhead]

wow, finnpipette i'm jealous.

 

[uclabruin725]

Hmm... I'm charged 8 for the first letter, and 4 for each subsequent request (made at the same time). If I want to add my AMCAS ID, it's an additional 5 bucks. And that's for up to 3 weeks of processing and first class mail!
I figured that I'm already spending so much for secondary applications, I might as well go with the rush service for 20 bucks each (+5 for including AMCAS ID Number)....
Grrrrrrr....

 

[MDmiracle]

Damn, guys I had a committee write 31 letters and another prof here write another 31. No charge... No pstage no envelopes, nothing.

 

[LaurieB]

I did my postbac at the University of Chicago and they have been awesome. They do a composite letter and send them out to as many schools as you want for 8 bucks a pop. Compared to the AMCAS and secondary fees, this is nothing.

 

[lyragrl]

I'm doing mine through my undergrad (and I finished there several years ago). They collect and consolidate and then send out letters. The first five packets of letters are free. After that it's $2 a pop. Hard to argue with. Gotta love small schoools.

 

[noy]

At my school, its a full packet [a bunch of letters and some committee jazz], first 3 schools are free and then $5 each.

For all the work and $$ we put in, its great!

 

[turkdlit]

I had no idea some schools charged for letters...that seems kinda ridiculous.

I've been out of school for a year now, and my pre-health commitee edits my essays, composites all my letters of rec's into a single packet, and my advisor asks me what I specifically want included in my letter, what strengths I think the schools should know about. AND, she offers a personal pre-interview prior to each real interview for specific schools, asking questions that she knows or thinks the interviewers will ask based on past students' experiences. I think I'd be causing some ruckus if my school had the nerve to ask for money just to send out recs...I guess this would remind us all of how universities are massive for-profit machines...

 

[Robz]

At Tennessee they pay for sending the letters out. Which is good considering that I applied to 20+ schools. 😉 I think they should do small perks like free LOR mailings considering they spend a small fortune on athletics around here. (not that I'm complaining about free football tickets either). 😀

 

[tester90024]

at columbia postbacc they string you along for months, telling you they are going to write your letter, all while advisors are quitting without telling any of their students, and other advisors are taking month long vacations in august which we all know is application crunch time (again without telling any of their students). then september rolls around, and they reply to your emails about your committee letter by ignoring your questions and instead asking "what was your mcat score again?" or other sort of irrelevant non-sense. and the best part of this.......IT'S ALL COMPLETELY FREE OF CHARGE!!!!!!!!!!

you are god damn right i'm bitter.

 

[Robz]

I'm not super bitter but I will add this. I like the fact its free of charge but my committee who puts together our LOR has actually LOST two of my previous letters. I thought I had taken care of the first missing one in March but when I went to send them when I got all my secondaries the beginning of August, I found out lhey "lost" the second one. ARGH. Anyway, its all good now cause the LOR have been mailed as of Wednesday. Though its not ultra early in the cycle compared to the August MCATers, its fairly early. This is a good example of nontrusting people to get stuff done for you and that you need to be on the ball all the time. Just wanted to add that.

 

[DocKwi]

The only thing you should be paying for is Postage. You spent your $$$$ during undergrad paying them, so why are they charging you extra! Absolut CRAZINESS!!!

 

[HawkeyeBFP]

Thanks all...sorry I'm so late replying, but you know how it is these days...oh, how I know you all know. 😀

Anyway, I'm going to my school's office with this thread as a reference. I'd like to make this really clear: they're charging me $25 PER LETTER for the first five letters, $35 for the next five, and $45 after that.

This is simply ridiculous and it shouldn't be allowed. I have enough to deal with.

Thanks all.