Help out a noobie! Question regarding update letters

canadianofpeace · May 15, 2014

Hi all, I am a Canadian applicant who just got rejected for the second year post interview, and am now looking into American schools. I have an idea of which schools to apply to from prior research, but have one glaring weakness in my application. This is clinical experience. I have started volunteering at a hospital for around 10 hours a week (will have only 30-40 hours by the time I submit my primary ~June 3rd) but am curious as to how "update" letters work. Are these physical letters typed up and mailed to the school? Or is it done online somehow? My plan is to update the schools to which I apply to (how often should I do this?) mainly to update them on my clinical volunteering. Any insight into this process and thoughts on my situation would be much appreciated!

EDIT: All my nonscience profs were actually only Masters students.... small university, will that hurt my app?

EDIT 2 (SORRY!): In Canada there is a strict deadline for graduate students, usually around June 30th to submit proof of successful thesis defense. Is there a similar deadline for American schools? I can't find anything

alamo4 · May 16, 2014

I would make a nice pdf and email it as an attachment. I think a lot of schools will not accept them or look at them unless they are already at least interested in you based on your previous submission.

The background of any professor only matters if they write a recommendation letter for you, so is that what you are asking about?

For people writing recs, there is one part where you put in their title (Dr, Prof, etc. so you could just use Prof), their name, their institution, and their contact information. However, usually when someone writes a rec letter, they include some biographical information about themselves, which would likely include degree or title, that may even been on a letterhead type of thing if they are submitting pdf.

There are tons of posts you can search for on the forum where people argue about how to select the people to write your letters.

I don't know of any US national graduate deadline. It is all school specific. If you do defend a thesis, that would be a very appropriate time to send an update letter.

canadianofpeace · May 16, 2014

alamo4 said: ↑

I would make a nice pdf and email it as an attachment. I think a lot of schools will not accept them or look at them unless they are already at least interested in you based on your previous submission.

The background of any professor only matters if they write a recommendation letter for you, so is that what you are asking about?

For people writing recs, there is one part where you put in their title (Dr, Prof, etc. so you could just use Prof), their name, their institution, and their contact information. However, usually when someone writes a rec letter, they include some biographical information about themselves, which would likely include degree or title, that may even been on a letterhead type of thing if they are submitting pdf.

There are tons of posts you can search for on the forum where people argue about how to select the people to write your letters.

I don't know of any US national graduate deadline. It is all school specific. If you do defend a thesis, that would be a very appropriate time to send an update letter.
Click to expand...

Thank you. In regards to who are writing the letters, I am not close to any non-science professors that actually have a pHD. I suppose I have no choice if it is required. Lastly, do you have any opinion on my clinical volunteering experience? Will that keep me out of all schools despite a strong GPA/MCAT/other ECs

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Help out a noobie! Question regarding update letters

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alamo4 Dudeist 2+ Year Member

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