well? Mines a little weird in that they don't really do anything and it's all up to you.
Anybody care to share any premed committee disasters?
Anybody care to share any premed committee disasters?
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How does your premed committee work?
Started by chudat
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My pre-med committee is a disaster mostly because no one is willing to get off their asses. This is the procedure for mine:
You give pre-med evaluation forms to your professors and TAs in ALL of your pre-req classes (they say it's mandatory but I slipped through just fine without "all"). You have to fill out a whole bunch of forms, write a personal essay, and submit transcripts/MCAT/AMCAS/AACOMAS. The most aggravating part of it is that you have to keep coming to them to make sure that the professors/TAs you gave the evaluation forms to actually submitted them, and I can tell you that 90% of the time they didn't submit them; the pre-med office just collectively says "your problem". A small percentage of those I continued to bother about the evaluation form actually submitted (even after promising they would), and I gave up on the rest.
Once they have as much as possible on-file and they feel content enough to allow you the honor of waiting several weeks for them to look at your file during one of their monthly committee meetings, then you get assigned to a professor on the pre-med committee who you need to interview with. After that is taken care of, that professor writes up a committee letter for you after several more weeks.
I have no idea how other pre-med committees work, just mine. And if you couldn't tell yet, I'm quite bitter. But I guess it all worked out in the end. 😀
You give pre-med evaluation forms to your professors and TAs in ALL of your pre-req classes (they say it's mandatory but I slipped through just fine without "all"). You have to fill out a whole bunch of forms, write a personal essay, and submit transcripts/MCAT/AMCAS/AACOMAS. The most aggravating part of it is that you have to keep coming to them to make sure that the professors/TAs you gave the evaluation forms to actually submitted them, and I can tell you that 90% of the time they didn't submit them; the pre-med office just collectively says "your problem". A small percentage of those I continued to bother about the evaluation form actually submitted (even after promising they would), and I gave up on the rest.
Once they have as much as possible on-file and they feel content enough to allow you the honor of waiting several weeks for them to look at your file during one of their monthly committee meetings, then you get assigned to a professor on the pre-med committee who you need to interview with. After that is taken care of, that professor writes up a committee letter for you after several more weeks.
I have no idea how other pre-med committees work, just mine. And if you couldn't tell yet, I'm quite bitter. But I guess it all worked out in the end. 😀
i would reccomend just get your own letters from professors or people you feel confident in writing letters for you and keep them under interfolio.com or whatever the website is for interfolio. It is so easy and you dont have to deal with all that junk the premed commitee does.
Also the premed commitee does not have to write an outstanding letter for you and it could hurt to have that one letter to be mediocre instead of 2-3 great letters. Just make sure the letters are from people with PHD/MD/DO behind their name
Also the premed commitee does not have to write an outstanding letter for you and it could hurt to have that one letter to be mediocre instead of 2-3 great letters. Just make sure the letters are from people with PHD/MD/DO behind their name
My pre-med committee letter was 'formed' by asking someone to write the committee letter from the LOR I had already collected. The DO/MD LOR will be attached with the committee letter. Much as semicolon has already suggested, it did require a lot of reminding... to the point where it sometimes felt like harrassing... so get started with that early. It doesn't seem to be a quick-moving process.
I'll answer your thread title, because I haven't had a disaster.
Our pre-med committee exists of one person, the dean of our Arts and Sciences College, who has been doing this for a long time and knows a lot (not a common theme). We have to pick six faculty members to write letters for us. These letters are then submitted to our pre-med advisor and she forms a composite letter that is sent out to schools.
Basically, everything is student-outlook based. There is no reason for a bad letter since you are cherry picking your letter writers.
Our pre-med committee exists of one person, the dean of our Arts and Sciences College, who has been doing this for a long time and knows a lot (not a common theme). We have to pick six faculty members to write letters for us. These letters are then submitted to our pre-med advisor and she forms a composite letter that is sent out to schools.
Basically, everything is student-outlook based. There is no reason for a bad letter since you are cherry picking your letter writers.
My first meeting with premed advisors: Didn't know ANYTHING about DO schools. MD schools, they pulled out a copy of the MSAR and handed it to me, and that was why I was on a three week waiting list to see the advisors...
My interview with a committee member so I could get the committee LOR: "Why did you even bother applying this session? I've never known anybody who got accepted to medical school without having completed all the pre-reqs prior to applying"
Time for letter to be sent out: two months.
To sum it up: Worthless. Pretty sad considering my school has a large premed population. The general bio/orgo classes always have 1000+ people per semester.
My interview with a committee member so I could get the committee LOR: "Why did you even bother applying this session? I've never known anybody who got accepted to medical school without having completed all the pre-reqs prior to applying"
Time for letter to be sent out: two months.
To sum it up: Worthless. Pretty sad considering my school has a large premed population. The general bio/orgo classes always have 1000+ people per semester.
Yep, I went into a tail spin depression about a year ago after the head of my pre-med program told me that applying to schools without all the pre-requisites completed would both "waste my time and money". 4 acceptances later and Im wondering why they just don't hire a trained chimp with a giant sign saying NO!🙂
My pre-med committee works the same way. We can have up to five faculty letters along with a cover letter written by the pre-med advisor. It's sent as one big composite packet to each school.
Mine is apparently pretty good, there's a main advisor and a committee that reviews your performance and recommends you if you have everything on their checklist (extracurriculars, high gpa, etc). Except you have to tell them you want to be evaluated during your junior year and I transferred in as a junior and decided to go to med school as a senior, so I can't use them. Even if I finished my prereqs before graduating they'd need another semester to decide whether to recommend me.
My "pre-med committee" consists of one professor who is in charge of all pre-professional health students (pre-dent, pre-med, etc). The first time I went to meet her she handed me a stats sheet from our only in state medical school and told me to get a gpa and mcat somewhere around the mean acceptance rate for that school. That was it.
After 6 months of research (and hours on SDN) I went back to her with my plan and she sorta just nodded and said "great job, let me know how you do."
When I inquired about committee letters she said my school does not do them and that she would help write one if it was absolutely necessary.
I think I have learned so much more doing this on my own. This whole process, to me, is like a game. Your job is to figure out the rules and tricks to playing. Once you learn the basics of the game, the only thing left is to throw the dice. You may not win, but knowing the rules can only play in your favor.
After 6 months of research (and hours on SDN) I went back to her with my plan and she sorta just nodded and said "great job, let me know how you do."
When I inquired about committee letters she said my school does not do them and that she would help write one if it was absolutely necessary.
I think I have learned so much more doing this on my own. This whole process, to me, is like a game. Your job is to figure out the rules and tricks to playing. Once you learn the basics of the game, the only thing left is to throw the dice. You may not win, but knowing the rules can only play in your favor.
My premed committee was awful. Our premed class was pretty small compared to other schools, so a few of us are very chummy with the professors. Then I come along and I get slammed for having the audacity to apply to medical school with my stats (and mind you, my GPA was a little on the lesser side, but I felt I had strong ECs and MCAT to back me up). They very reluctantly decided to agree to write my committee letter (and I'm so sure it was oh-so-glowing), but I heard that they did not write letters for other less fortunate students. I strongly suspect this is so that the school can keep its "high" statistics of 90% of those who apply to medical school from the program get accepted. The premed committee head also just told -everyone- to go DO because it was just too damn hard to go MD. I love DO and am going to start this fall, but I am not going because I was any less qualified to go MD.
Needless to say, I have forced amnesia on much of the horror story of my undergrad. Med school will be a fresh start and hopefully devoid of horrible professors.
Needless to say, I have forced amnesia on much of the horror story of my undergrad. Med school will be a fresh start and hopefully devoid of horrible professors.
I think most of us can agree that pre-med advisors are the worst resource for advice/information/encouragement/help. Spread the word! 😉
I was so irritated by my advisor everytime she said "I understand how you feel" or "I understand what you're going through". Before my first interview, she was very concerned that I wouldn't interview well and made it clear that I shouldn't expect much. Three interviews and three acceptances later, I have no idea why the hell I ever listened to a word she uttered.
I was so irritated by my advisor everytime she said "I understand how you feel" or "I understand what you're going through". Before my first interview, she was very concerned that I wouldn't interview well and made it clear that I shouldn't expect much. Three interviews and three acceptances later, I have no idea why the hell I ever listened to a word she uttered.
