Crapy Pre-Med Advisor

[JDAD]

I have read other threads like this, but I guess I just needed to vent. My pre-med advisor/committee still hasn't given me their committee letter.

I ask every week and every week they tell me it will be ready by the end of the week. It has been 3 weeks now, and no letter.

I am starting to get pissed. I would like to tell her to fuk herself and that I don't want her damn letter, but I know it looks terrible to come from a school that has a committee but not provide their letter.

What should I do? I can't get pissed at her because she is writing the letter, and I don't want to dely my application for 3 weeks and then get a poor letter.

HELP!!!!!!

(How do you spell committee?)

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[davedavedave]

our committee doesnt have ours ready until sept... does that hurt my chances???

 

[davedavedave]

i heard that schools dont look at your app until sept, so it's not really that advantageous to submit secondaries much earlier, is that true? or is that just some bull that our committee feeds us????

 

[gaf]

Having your file complete by mid July isn't going to get you into medical school. Having it complete the day of the deadline doesn't knock you out of contention. Yes, earlier is better than later but do try to relax and worry about the things you can control.

To the OP: it's unprofessional of your advisor to tell you "next week" over and over, but you've grasped the important part. You need a good letter. As for delaying your application 3 weeks - have you completed the secondaries already? (Impressive if so.) Whether the secondaries are done or not, see paragraph above.

 

[Eyecon82]

I have read other threads like this, but I guess I just needed to vent. My pre-med advisor/committee still hasn't given me their committee letter.

I ask every week and every week they tell me it will be ready by the end of the week. It has been 3 weeks now, and no letter.

I am starting to get pissed. I would like to tell her to fuk herself and that I don't want her damn letter, but I know it looks terrible to come from a school that has a committee but not provide their letter.

What should I do? I can't get pissed at her because she is writing the letter, and I don't want to dely my application for 3 weeks and then get a poor letter.

HELP!!!!!!

(How do you spell committee?)

I wouldn't worry about it....it's still really early in the ballgame

 

[drdragon]

I have read other threads like this, but I guess I just needed to vent. My pre-med advisor/committee still hasn't given me their committee letter.

I ask every week and every week they tell me it will be ready by the end of the week. It has been 3 weeks now, and no letter.

I am starting to get pissed. I would like to tell her to fuk herself and that I don't want her damn letter, but I know it looks terrible to come from a school that has a committee but not provide their letter.

What should I do? I can't get pissed at her because she is writing the letter, and I don't want to dely my application for 3 weeks and then get a poor letter.

HELP!!!!!!

(How do you spell committee?)

I was in the same spot about two years ago when i first applied to med school. My committee letter was sent at the end of august, which was realy late. I should just have turned down the committee letter and have gone with individual letters. It all depends on who is on your commitee. My first commitee was this prof. who really disliked me because I refused to take her genetics class (it was poitless). Just stand back and evaluate what is stronger: individual letters or a commitee letter. All I know is that I should have gone with individual letters two years ago, but now I am using the commitee because I really like this guy in the commitee at my graduate school.So those are my two cents. Good luck.

 

[Paws]

I think it is the luck of the draw about pre med committees. Mine turned out to be awesome but you never know even year to year. I had my letter written and out the door by early August, but the year before some people were still dragging into October and no letter.

I recommend never p*ssing off the pre med office, if you can in any way avoid it. Sometimes you just want to strangle them or in the very least, YELL at them but we can't. Another lesson in patience which we must all learn in life ...

Just make sure that everything else is in order and submitted and then the letter can come last into the file. July is still considered early and so if your file is complete except for the letters, well no big woop.

 

[Pinkertinkle]

I was in the same spot about two years ago when i first applied to med school. My committee letter was sent at the end of august, which was realy late. I should just have turned down the committee letter and have gone with individual letters. It all depends on who is on your commitee. My first commitee was this prof. who really disliked me because I refused to take her genetics class (it was poitless). Just stand back and evaluate what is stronger: individual letters or a commitee letter. All I know is that I should have gone with individual letters two years ago, but now I am using the commitee because I really like this guy in the commitee at my graduate school.So those are my two cents. Good luck.

You're not quite that free to choose, many schools require you have a committee letter if you have a committee.

 

[Severus]

Oiy... what a situation. You know, my school has a pre-med committee, I suppose, but I never got to know any of them since I never had any classes with them. What is the point of having a committee write a lor when they have absolutely no connection with the students? Glupost! I, for one, will not take their letter and apply with individual rec's.

Pre-med advisors... you've got to love them.

Sev

 

[Pinkertinkle]

Beware of my above post. I suggest you find out more about your Premed committee.

 

[gaf]

Oiy... what a situation. You know, my school has a pre-med committee, I suppose, but I never got to know any of them since I never had any classes with them. What is the point of having a committee write a lor when they have absolutely no connection with the students? Glupost! I, for one, will not take their letter and apply with individual rec's.

Pre-med advisors... you've got to love them.

Sev

I think many of them collect your LORs and draw from them to make a cover letter of sorts.

 

[Eyecon82]

Honestly I went to see my pre-med advisor once...that was in summer b/w junior and senior year....she put me down so bad I was about to yank her head off....so i said screw it....

I utilized the LOR service they have and that was governed by another person..thank God!!

However, when I started receiving my acceptances....i made a copy of one of them...a school I knew I wasn't going to attend and slapped it right on her desk

Then I confronted her and told her she was a horrible pre-med advisor and how she affected my self-esteem during the whole stressful application process....she appologized but still I reported her to the Dean..

After that I was asked by the assistant Dean to volunteer my time as a "student pre-med advisor"

However, I think she received many more complaints and was dismissed.....pre-med advisors can suck a$$ sometimes so dont let them get in your way.....try everything not to piss em off...but if you have to..talk to a higher-up...it always works

 

[CarleneM]

my school (harvard) does not send out the letters until september, and that's if you get all your LOR's into them by July 1st. They tell us do the secondaries as soon as we receive them but apparently think it is fine for the letters to arrive in september. hearing that some people get them sent in july or august makes me envious! it is kind of frustrating knowing the letters are just sitting around in our pre-med house office.

oh and i am from kirkland house at harvard. if anyone else from harvard wants to chime in with different harvard houses's policies that would be great.

 

[bahala na]

How important is the committee letter?

 

[Eyecon82]

How important is the committee letter?

If a school has a pre-med committee and if you did not end up getting a LOR from them...im sure the question will come up in an interview

 

[velo]

Honestly I went to see my pre-med advisor once...that was in summer b/w junior and senior year....she put me down so bad I was about to yank her head off....so i said screw it....

I utilized the LOR service they have and that was governed by another person..thank God!!

However, when I started receiving my acceptances....i made a copy of one of them...a school I knew I wasn't going to attend and slapped it right on her desk

Then I confronted her and told her she was a horrible pre-med advisor and how she affected my self-esteem during the whole stressful application process....she appologized but still I reported her to the Dean..

After that I was asked by the assistant Dean to volunteer my time as a "student pre-med advisor"

However, I think she received many more complaints and was dismissed.....pre-med advisors can suck a$$ sometimes so dont let them get in your way.....try everything not to piss em off...but if you have to..talk to a higher-up...it always works

Yeah, just a note on pre-med advisors in general...I think a lot of them feel it is their job to frighten students into doing a ton of ECs and spending their every waking moment volunteering. A lot of the students they see are people who actually have a pretty slim chance of getting in...their GPA's going to be weak, they probably be happy just to get through the MCAT, and their only hope is to have a ridiculous number of ECs/volunteering experiences...and also probably get a bit lucky. So if you're the type that's academically strong, take what they say with a grain of salt. yes you should have ECs, yes you should volunteer, research is a good idea too...but you don't have to make it your life (unless of course you want to!), and don't let an advisor tell you at the beginning of soph year that you're "already WAY behind." My premed advisor spent 3 years telling me i had a snowball's chance in hell at getting in, until she saw my final GPA/MCAT and her tune changed....so don't let them stress you out, it'll be ok!

As for the letters, I'd wait for the committee...sooner is always better than later to turn 2ndaries in....but getting it in towards the end of august or even september isn't really going to hurt you. again...I know it seems hard now, but relax (without slacking) and it'll be ok

 

[fun8stuff]

I have read other threads like this, but I guess I just needed to vent. My pre-med advisor/committee still hasn't given me their committee letter.

I ask every week and every week they tell me it will be ready by the end of the week. It has been 3 weeks now, and no letter.

I am starting to get pissed. I would like to tell her to fuk herself and that I don't want her damn letter, but I know it looks terrible to come from a school that has a committee but not provide their letter.

What should I do? I can't get pissed at her because she is writing the letter, and I don't want to dely my application for 3 weeks and then get a poor letter.

HELP!!!!!!

(How do you spell committee?)

I am in the same situation... I come from a small state school where Pre-Med is not that big of program... only 4 or 5 of us applying this year. My premed advisor said they normally don't write the committee letter until the end of august.... your guys' posts make me feel a little better... thanks!

 

[Severus]

Haha...I just went on my undergrad's pre-med site. They talk about the letter on there, but they mention that if they don't really know you or if you have graduated from school (will have been 2 yrs for me by the time I go to med school), then just get the lor's on your own. Good to know. Well, we'll just have to see how it pans out for people without one.

Banging my head against dungeon door...

Sev

 

[Scubadoc]

i know exactly how you feel! i asked my pre-med advisor for a LOR at the end of April, beginning of MAY and am still waiting for it what 3 months later? i mean, how friggin hard can it be?

hey sev...don't hit your head to hard!

 

[pika7]

I realize that everyone is a little nervous when it comes to getting application materials out, especially when you're not the one in charge of sending something (eg. Committee letters, transcripts). However, you also have to take into account the committee process. I know this doesn't apply to every pre-med committee, but at my undergrad institution, professors volunteered to interview students and write letters. The pre-med advisor simply proof-read and sometimes edited the letters. When speaking to her, she told me that a good committee letter takes approximately ten hours to write and perfect. I bring this up because professors VOLUNTEER to do this stuff. They are doing it to help you get into medical school. I realize that people are anxious, but I don't think it's fair bashing the people who are putting in lots of time that they don't have to to help you.

The only thing I would be slightly annoyed about is the fact that JDAD's advisor keeps telling him it will be done by the end of this week. Other than that, relax. I didn't have my committee letter sent out until Mid-late august even though I had all of my recs in by June 1st.

Good luck to all of you.

 

[liverotcod]

my school (harvard) does not send out the letters until september, and that's if you get all your LOR's into them by July 1st. They tell us do the secondaries as soon as we receive them but apparently think it is fine for the letters to arrive in september. hearing that some people get them sent in july or august makes me envious! it is kind of frustrating knowing the letters are just sitting around in our pre-med house office.

oh and i am from kirkland house at harvard. if anyone else from harvard wants to chime in with different harvard houses's policies that would be great.

Dunster house here, and the policy is September, although they're there all summer and I think they get them out earlier in actual fact. Our LORs were due to them June 1st, so that gives them plenty of time, eh?

The difference in resources undergrad schools put into premed advising is pretty astounding. Harvard has 12 premedical committees, one for each residential House, composed of current HMS students and a senior advisor or two. I'm the only student my advisor has applying this year, even though I graduated 11 years ago! It's very, very good.

Meanwhile, at VCU, where I did my post-bacc, there's a single pre-health advisor for the whole school. They do have a committee to do the letter and interview practice, but it's maybe 1/10 the resources Harvard provides. I guess that helps explain the tuition difference.

 

[vhawk]

You guys are lucky, at least you have a committee. I am stuck bothering 3-5 people about deadlines, rather than one committee. Although it is probably nice to send in 3-5 letters, imagine if you heard "by the end of the week" from 5 people per week!

 

[CarleneM]

Dunster house here, and the policy is September, although they're there all summer and I think they get them out earlier in actual fact. Our LORs were due to them June 1st, so that gives them plenty of time, eh?

The difference in resources undergrad schools put into premed advising is pretty astounding. Harvard has 12 premedical committees, one for each residential House, composed of current HMS students and a senior advisor or two. I'm the only student my advisor has applying this year, even though I graduated 11 years ago! It's very, very good.

Meanwhile, at VCU, where I did my post-bacc, there's a single pre-health advisor for the whole school. They do have a committee to do the letter and interview practice, but it's maybe 1/10 the resources Harvard provides. I guess that helps explain the tuition difference.

yeah I think I am the only advisee my advisor has for this year as well and she has been sooooo helpful. I especially appreciate that they allow alums to use the committees. Having us a get a draft in of our personal statement in october was a little excessive, I thought, but in retrospect it was really helpful to get the ball rolling.

 

[GBFKicks]

Yeah, my pre med advisor is frustrating me. I went in to ask her whether a couple of classes are BCPM classes and she beat around the bush and ended up just telling me to go with what I fell. Well, if I knew about how I feel with these classes, then I wouldn't have to ask her. Any of you guys have any advice? Here are the two classes---

Two anthropology classes that are also fulfill natural science requirements (I know I didn't have to use them as I had all of the other premed + science classes, but I am an anthropology major and was wondering if they should/could be used as BCPM classes). Would those classes be BCPM classes according to AMCAS?

Anthropology 105-- Human evolution (Human evolution and variability and principles of biological adaptation)

Anthropology 231-- Fossil humans (different interpretations of human evolution; principles of evolutionary biology; survey of the biology and behavior of living primates)

What do you guys think... I could readlly use the help.

 

[gaf]

Yeah, my pre med advisor is frustrating me. I went in to ask her whether a couple of classes are BCPM classes and she beat around the bush and ended up just telling me to go with what I fell. Well, if I knew about how I feel with these classes, then I wouldn't have to ask her. Any of you guys have any advice? Here are the two classes---

What do you guys think... I could readlly use the help.

You know, it might not be that your advisor is useless. It could be that - like most of us - she hasn't taken the classes. As a result, she doesn't feel qualified to say whether either one of them is so heavy on biology that you ought to call it "BIOL."
You were there. What do you think?

FYI, the "AMCAS Instruction Book for the 2005 Entering Class" lumps anthropology classes in under Behavioral and Social Sciences.

The worst thing that will happen is AMCAS changes your designation. It won't be the end of the world.

 

[principessa]

My school doesn't have a pre-med committee, but one of my recommenders was a little slow with his letter. You just have to keep after them (politely). Call or email to check on it until they get it done. If they are still behind, try phrasing it from the med school's point of view, i.e. "Hopkins would like for you to send them the letter by next week." It gives a sense of urgency, I think.

 

[Code Brown]

My school doesn't have a pre-med committee, but one of my recommenders was a little slow with his letter. You just have to keep after them (politely). Call or email to check on it until they get it done. If they are still behind, try phrasing it from the med school's point of view, i.e. "Hopkins would like for you to send them the letter by next week." It gives a sense of urgency, I think.

What works really well is to keep running into the professor (unintentionaly of course ). Everytime they see you, they will be reminded that they need to do something for you, and eventually get around to writing it. Think of how you all of a sudden remember something you were supposed to do for someone who you run into again. They go through the same thing.

 

[GBFKicks]

You know, it might not be that your advisor is useless. It could be that - like most of us - she hasn't taken the classes. As a result, she doesn't feel qualified to say whether either one of them is so heavy on biology that you ought to call it "BIOL."
You were there. What do you think?

FYI, the "AMCAS Instruction Book for the 2005 Entering Class" lumps anthropology classes in under Behavioral and Social Sciences.

The worst thing that will happen is AMCAS changes your designation. It won't be the end of the world.

I wish that was the case, but she knew exactly which classes I was talking about before I even gave her the title. She was actually quite rude about telling me that she knew which classes they were. She then went on to say that they cover biological material but are anthropology classes, and I should go with my gut feeling on whether they are BCPM classes.

 

[gaf]

I wish that was the case, but she knew exactly which classes I was talking about before I even gave her the title. She was actually quite rude about telling me that she knew which classes they were. She then went on to say that they cover biological material but are anthropology classes, and I should go with my gut feeling on whether they are BCPM classes.

So what's your gut feeling? Do you want them included in your BCPM? Then call it Biology and see what happens. Here's what can happen. Final classifications for each scenario in parentheses.

- AMCAS agrees and it's finished (BIOL)
- AMCAS disagrees

-- you send course descriptions and ask them to accept your BIOL notation​

--- They do and it's finished (BIOL)​

--- They don't and it's finished (BESS)​

-- you leave it alone and it's finished (BESS)​

Or, you can call them Behavioral & Social Science. In that case, AMCAS agrees and it's finished (BESS).

 

[ldona]

As long as you take care of everything that is in your control, you are doing fine as far as adcoms are concerned. I had everthing complete on my end done early, and my committee letter didn't go out to schools until late Sep/ early Oct. and I still did OK.

 

[DieselPetrolGrl]

i also have a rec problem
i have been requesting one for ..well it will be one year in september...the guy swears he has done it ...he keeps loosing the form/ loosing the letter/ forgets to mail it...i mean its whack i think he is off his rocker... i have sent him the paperwork so often the pre med secretary thinks i am sending them to make her life hell / mailing them to ficticious professor.. i dont know what to do anymore... so i am ignoring him and looking for other profs -- very hard since its summer and so late
but my pre med advisor looked at my log and was like...why do u keep requesting forms for someone who obviously doesnt want to recommend you? i am a wuss i almost cried while blabbering "bbbbuttt but but he likes me he wanted to!" ahahahhahaha



VENTING FEELS GOOD !
btw after i collect letters i am like 200+in line..we have one commitee for all the pre's..premed, prevet, dental, podiatric etc. BAH!