Is a committee letter better than normal LOR's?

[hra87]

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My school is apparently starting this for the first time in a while? Should I bother?

 

[armybound]

I wouldn't say it's "better" but most schools say that they prefer the committee packet instead of individual letters.

 

[Auron]

So the collect individual letters and then they combine them into one and send that to the med schools. Is that correct?

 

[armybound]

So the collect individual letters and then they combine them into one and send that to the med schools. Is that correct?

the pre-med committee?

 

[Auron]

the pre-med committee?

whoops, yes. My school has a "health professions comittee"

 

[armybound]

whoops, yes. My school has a "health professions comittee"

I'd say it depends on your school (I obviously can't speak for every school), but my school will collect your LORs from outside sources as well as professors at school to be sent.

In addition, they conduct an interview. They have your grades and your activities from college and basically perform a brief interview like you'd expect at a medical school. They then write an additional letter that takes into consideration your numbers, LORs, activities, and interview, and sends that to the schools. This way the receiving school only has to read 1 letter instead of however many outside ones you had sent (though I do believe all of the original LORs are included in the packet)

 

[nick_carraway]

I'd say it depends on your school (I obviously can't speak for every school), but my school will collect your LORs from outside sources as well as professors at school to be sent.

In addition, they conduct an interview. They have your grades and your activities from college and basically perform a brief interview like you'd expect at a medical school. They then write an additional letter that takes into consideration your numbers, LORs, activities, and interview, and sends that to the schools. This way the receiving school only has to read 1 letter instead of however many outside ones you had sent (though I do believe all of the original LORs are included in the packet)

Same for UC Davis. For us, the individual letters are definitely included in the virtualeval packet.

 

[JRockdown]

Even though I am not sure what kind of better you are thinking, I think ADCOM's like receiving committee letters more than individuals. It is like someone is doing a little part of their job for them. Obviously, they have to still read between the lines, but having another group gather a number of LOR sources and then interview is a seemingly valuable process.

This is probably why a number of schools make you get a committee letter if your school offers it.

 

[se2131]

Even though I am not sure what kind of better you are thinking, I think ADCOM's like receiving committee letters more than individuals. It is like someone is doing a little part of their job for them. Obviously, they have to still read between the lines, but having another group gather a number of LOR sources and then interview is a seemingly valuable process.

This is probably why a number of schools make you get a committee letter if your school offers it.

I'll agree with this, I directly talked to a dean of admissions concerning this (my school doesn't send out committee letters until relatively late, and I wanted to see if I should just send individual LORs), and s/he told me that the med schools really prefer the committee letter, it's much more valuable to them than sorting through the individual letters.