Extra Letters of Recommendation

[Entirecropslost]

Many schools say for LORs to send in a committee letter. Anybody know what the scoop is on sending additional ones? Will they throw them away, get mad, not get mad and read them, ect?

My particular case is, long-story-short, my committee letter didn't have my physician's letter in it, but maybe that's a good thing b/c it turned out to be an amazing one and it'd be better if they read it seperatly. That is depending on ADCOM's think of extra letters. I have a feeling if I call the school's I'll just get a generic no-so-accurate answer. I would also like to put a letter from a prof i did research with in seperatly, but that one is included in my committee letter. (which raises another question about weither or not ADCOM's would like that or not) ANYWAY any help is appreciated!

 

[VPDcurt]

I just sent in my entire packet of stuff, including a committee letter, and 5 or 6 additional letters that my undergrad kept on file. I got no complaints from any of the schools. I figured I would give them everything and let them figure it out.

 

[ND2005]

A former president of my college once said of undergrad admissions, "the thicker the file, the thicker the applicant"

I think that often applies for med school apps as well.

 

[iceman77_7]

A former president of my college once said of undergrad admissions, "the thicker the file, the thicker the applicant"

I think that often applies for med school apps as well.

Thicker the applicant in the bad or good way?

 

[Entirecropslost]

I think that's a good thing

 

[Law2Doc]

Many schools say for LORs to send in a committee letter. Anybody know what the scoop is on sending additional ones? Will they throw them away, get mad, not get mad and read them, ect?

My particular case is, long-story-short, my committee letter didn't have my physician's letter in it, but maybe that's a good thing b/c it turned out to be an amazing one and it'd be better if they read it seperatly. That is depending on ADCOM's think of extra letters. I have a feeling if I call the school's I'll just get a generic no-so-accurate answer. I would also like to put a letter from a prof i did research with in seperatly, but that one is included in my committee letter. (which raises another question about weither or not ADCOM's would like that or not) ANYWAY any help is appreciated!

Nontrads are explicitly told to provide more LORs than the minimum, to account for the various stages of their academics and career. I suspect there is no schoolwide rule against additional LORs, but once you pass a certain threshold number they probably don't add much to your application and may smack of desperation if you don't have additional higher education or career to necessitate them.

 

[VPDcurt]

Nontrads are explicitly told to provide more LORs than the minimum, to account for the various stages of their academics and career. I suspect there is no schoolwide rule against additional LORs, but once you pass a certain threshold number they probably don't add much to your application and may smack of desperation if you don't have additional higher education or career to necessitate them.

Yeah good point. I was a nontrad (did 2 yrs of grad school) so I had a bunch of additional LORs that I wanted to send on top of my committee letter from undergrad.

 

[ND2005]

Thick in a bad way.

Unless you're a nontrad (as noted above), or your extra LOR is from the dean of the school you're applying to, don't just throw a bunch of extra stuff in there.