if you could change the pre-med process in ONE significant way...

[LizzyM]

Move away from the requirement/preference for the committee letter. LORs from a committee that may not even know the applicant aren't fair to either the applicant or the school. Better to get letters from professors who actually know you, your strengths, and your weaknesses.

Oh, no. A good committee letter is worth 5 LOR from people who can't/don't see the whole picture. Actually, an excellent committee will append 3-5 LOR in their entirity. A good committee will quote excerts from the letters. A committee letter will tell ther reader about the school (particularly good if you come from a school that is less well known to adcoms because it is small or it has a small pre-med pool), the grading at the school, the ordinary and honors courses offered to meet the premed requirements, the ways that the student distinguished himself (most premed students at that school may participate in a certain volunteer activity, the letter may point out that this applicant is out of the ordinary because he organized and coordinated the efforts of 100 fellow volunteers).

Some committee letters will categorize applicants and an adcom may know that they want to interview all the applicants from ___ who have the highest rating from that committee.

You should have an opportunity to be interviewed by someone on the committee and have your application reviewed by the committee. They are able to confirm information in your application (e.g. that you dropped 4 courses in the fall of your junior year because of a tragedy in the family that caused profound financial difficulties). Sometimes, a committee letter will give this kind of backstory that the student will downplay in the PS.

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[Zephyrus]

great. thoughts on....

1) current prerequisites, specifically the math requirement.
2) URM policy.
3) number of medical schools w/r/t growing U.S. population and artificially deflated acceptance rate, issues of "quality" vs. "accessibility."

Z

 

[chocolate-e]

A committee letter will tell ther reader about the school (particularly good if you come from a school that is less well known to adcoms because it is small or it has a small pre-med pool), the grading at the school, the ordinary and honors courses offered to meet the premed requirements

They could, however, accomplish the same thing through a non-student-specific letter covering these general points.

the ways that the student distinguished himself (most premed students at that school may participate in a certain volunteer activity, the letter may point out that this applicant is out of the ordinary because he organized and coordinated the efforts of 100 fellow volunteers).

If the committee knows how the student distinguished him/herself, it's probably only because the student or one of the LOR writers told them. So the student/LOR writer could have just reported this information on their own. I just don't see what the committee has to add here.

Some committee letters will categorize applicants and an adcom may know that they want to interview all the applicants from ___ who have the highest rating from that committee.

Could be useful if you're coming from a big school with a lot of pre-meds. Probably not useful in a school like mine, which generated 4 or 5 med school students the year I graduated. Also seems like an opportunity for a biased committee to skew the process in favor of students they happen to know better, etc.

You should have an opportunity to be interviewed by someone on the committee and have your application reviewed by the committee. They are able to confirm information in your application (e.g. that you dropped 4 courses in the fall of your junior year because of a tragedy in the family that caused profound financial difficulties). Sometimes, a committee letter will give this kind of backstory that the student will downplay in the PS.

Committee interviews are tough for those who are already out of undergrad when they apply; the whole committee process seems less relevant to non-trad applicants. As far as telling the backstory--again, this depends on the committee knowing you. If they don't, they have nothing to add. If they just reiterate what you tell them, they're really not adding any credibility.

Sorry to rant. I'm sure there are some cases where a committee letter is helpful; it's just that trying to get my committee letter (as someone applying already out of school) proved to be the most frustrating and distressing part of the entire application process. If you have a good committee, go for it. I don't want to see committee letters become such a standard that students have to use a committee, whether it's actually going to be good for them or not.