I attended a grad school after ugrad. Do I still need a comm letter?

[jcurtin2013]

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After undergrad, I went on to get a Masters degree at another university in infectious disease. I then got five solid letters of reference from professors at both universities, as well as one professional reference (clinical experience). All of these letters are individual letters, however, and I know that my undergrad school does do a committee letter, but at this point I've missed the deadline to get one (not that I really wanted one anyway). My question is, given that I attended a grad school and got solid individual letters, am I in the clear for not needing a committee letter, or will I still be frowned upon? Thanks.

 

[jcurtin2013]

bump, kinda like to get an opinion

 

[semicharmed]

This is a tough one. My guess is that if your UG offers to write committee letters to alumni, you probably need to include it. Med schools get suspicious when they see you graduated from somewhere that offers it and you don't include it.

It's a difficult case, though-I'm not really super qualified to give an opinion. Best suggestion=call your UG advising office (ideally the department in charge of committee letters) and see what they think, they should know some experience in the past. Or just call your med schools and ask them. It might be tedious but it's the only way you can get an answer you trust-going to the school directly. Thats why the med admissions staff have advisors on the phone!

 

[Cinclus]

I got a committee letter as a grad student. If your undergrad university is fairly close by, I would try to get a committee letter. If the committee doesn't require an in-person interview, then definitely get one, as distance will not be a factor. It just makes things easier to have one.

 

[jcurtin2013]

thanks for the input. anybody else care to weigh in? has anybody had success getting into med school without a committee letter?

 

[Gut Shot]

thanks for the input. anybody else care to weigh in? has anybody had success getting into med school without a committee letter?

I applied from a grad program about 5 years after finishing undergrad. Nobody expected a committee letter by that point. Your application will not suffer without it.

 

[kpcrew]

isn't there a process for a committee letter anyway? if you would have to wait another year to get it, then i would just skip it.

 

[Hoya2009]

I did the same thing you did and did not get a committee letter from my UG institution or my grad one.
No one ever asked me about it and I never mentioned it.