Is it necessary to get individual LOR's in addition to committee letter?

[Svart Aske]

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What's the consensus on this one? I'd rather just do one committee letter and one dentist letter, but do some schools require additional letters from science profs and will additional LORs strengthen my application?

 

[lhtran07]

If I remember correctly, the AADSAS app only lets you do either a.) 1 committee + 1 additional, or b.) 4 letters total. I think some schools prefer a committee letter and will only take the 3 LOR from professors + 1 additional if your school doesn't provide a committee letter.

So unless the individual school asks for more, I'd only submit the committee + 1. Giving them more than what they asked for, in terms of LOR, will not strengthen your application especially since they're going through thousands of applications. If the committee letter + dentist letter are strong, then that is sufficient. If you want to make your app stand out, you should do that through your personal statement.

 

[eldirty]

A committee letter is looked at strongly and I know at my school we were required to submit several letters of recommendation to the committee and sit down for an interview before the committee would write their letter on our behalf. The committee letter from what I understand is a combination of quotes and strong points from all of the other letters with comments directly from the committee. Some schools like others have said will require additional letters, some requesting they be sent directly to the school.

 

[theilleztpaki]

does a schools committee have a set amount of letters they can write in a semester/year??

A committee letter is looked at strongly and I know at my school we were required to submit several letters of recommendation to the committee and sit down for an interview before the committee would write their letter on our behalf. The committee letter from what I understand is a combination of quotes and strong points from all of the other letters with comments directly from the committee. Some schools like others have said will require additional letters, some requesting they be sent directly to the school.

 

[mx41]

Could someone explain to me what a commitee letter is? How does one get that letter and is it an easier way of fulfilling the LOR requirement?
Could someone elaborate? Thanks

 

[War Eagle]

Check with your health professions advisor about the committee process for more specific information, but I'll tell you how my committee letter went. I had four people write LOR's (2 prof, 1 dentist, 1 personal). I submitted those to the health professions committee along with my personal statement and signed up for an interview date. The committee interviewed me and gave me very helpful feedback about my interview. They also gave me a questionnairre that I filled out and brought to the interview (it had information about EC's, GPA, DAT, etc.). The committee then, based on the interview, personal statement, questionnairre, and other LORs, wrote a separate letter of recommendation and attached the other LORs (that I had previously submitted) to it. So all of the letters got sent. I'm not sure if this is how all committee letters work, but this was my experience.

 

[eldirty]

does a schools committee have a set amount of letters they can write in a semester/year??

Im sure that depends on the school ... but i cant imagine a pre-health advising committee not writing a letter for an applicant who has put forth the effort to get their packet together in a timely manner ... has anyone had a bad experience that could help elaborate?

mx41 does your school have a pre-health advising office?

 

[mx41]

Im sure that depends on the school ... but i cant imagine a pre-health advising committee not writing a letter for an applicant who has put forth the effort to get their packet together in a timely manner ... has anyone had a bad experience that could help elaborate?

mx41 does your school have a pre-health advising office?

Yeah my school does.
So for the committee letter, do you need to get several LORs from professors before you can get one?

 

[War Eagle]

Yeah my school does.
So for the committee letter, do you need to get several LORs from professors before you can get one?

Talk to your pre-health advising office. They can give you the details of how the committee process works at your school.