Is it possible to apply "without" premded advisor ?

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lilmiss

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Hi everyone...

I was wondering if it is possible to do everything; application,personal, and rec.letters without going thru. my premed advisor ?

thanks.
 
most schools require you to use the premed committee if your undergrad school has one.

Doing recs. for multiple schools would be a nightmare for your letter writers too if you're applying to more than a handful unless you use some other letter service.
 
it would also look kind of sketchy if the med schools are familiar with your school, know theres a pre-med committee, and that you decided to avoid them...
 
I think the pre-med committee thing is a bad idea. We just have a letter office...and people to talk to. You're kind of screwed if someone on the committiee doesn't like something about you. Plus, it sounds like getting a review...and jumping through all of the hoops would drive me nuts.
 
My situation is a little convoluted, but here it is for what it's worth. I was in two colleges, A&S and Music, and I was in the honors program. I had to be advised in both colleges before I could register, and it was in my best interest to pay a visit to the honors advisor before I registered for class too. Each semester I had to schedule three appointments for advising, and I thought that generally it was a waste of time.

My undergraduate school had a pre-med advisor that was useless and a big waste of time. They just recently added the committee letter to their services. This was added after I graduated but as I was reapplying. I didn't use either and I didn't have any problems, at least problems that I know about because nobody ever said anything to me. My school did, however, have a letter service that kept all my LOR's on file and sent them out to med schools at my request. I think it is a great idea to use this service if it is available because all your letters are in the same location and get sent out at the same time and you only have to ask the writer once.

Many med schools ask for or require the committee letter if it is available. If your pre-med advisor is as useless as mine, I would suggest you pay them visits so they know how great you are when it comes time to write the letter, but there may be other places to get better advice (departments, here, peers, etc.). If your school doesn't have a committee letter, you will be fine on your own as long as you keep focused and make sure you have all the prereq classes.
 
Nebmuse said:
My undergraduate school had a pre-med advisor that was useless and a big waste of time.

LOL, I hear you on that one...
 
adamj61 said:
I think the pre-med committee thing is a bad idea. We just have a letter office...and people to talk to. You're kind of screwed if someone on the committiee doesn't like something about you. Plus, it sounds like getting a review...and jumping through all of the hoops would drive me nuts.
It did suck jump through hoops, but once I jumped through them all it was well worth it. It made sending out the recs very simple and schools did often comment positively on the "committee letter". It is in the schools best interest to support you fully so I think once you've jumped the hoops they will only write positive things about you.
 
I actually asked my pre-med advisor the same question - what happened if I didnt go through his office but just applied. (I had already graduated and didnt want to fly out to meet with him, which was required and also turned out to be really useful....).

He basically said you "can," but the schools look down on it and it is highly not recommended. Then again, it may depend on your school. But I would recommend that even if you do not get most of your advice from the pre-med advisor, 1) make him or her think he or she is important and 2) at least officially go through the pre-med office.
 
I did the whole thing without talking to the premed advisor or using a committee letter. I have been out of school for a few years but not long enough to get out of the committee letter requirement. I did not want to travel for an interview with the committee either (not to mention the fact that I was about 4 months past their deadline by the time I realized this would be an issue). My undergrad school was able to send a letter to each of the schools that asked for a committee letter saying that they were unaware of my application up til that point (this was true) and the absence of a committee letter did not reflect either positively or negatively on me...If your school will do this, that would probably help, but probably not at schools that are really stringent about the requirement for a committee letter (not sure which ones are except for UVt, which gave me a hard time about it).
 
I also did the whole thing technically without my advisor. She only offered negative criticism and didn't help at all. Also, she didn't even tell me to do a committee letter early on, so I had to do them all by myself. 👍
 
Hell yeah!!! Screw those *****s!!! You are the only one for sure that you can count on.
 
abbaroodle said:
I actually asked my pre-med advisor the same question - what happened if I didnt go through his office but just applied. (I had already graduated and didnt want to fly out to meet with him, which was required and also turned out to be really useful....).

He basically said you "can," but the schools look down on it and it is highly not recommended. Then again, it may depend on your school. But I would recommend that even if you do not get most of your advice from the pre- med advisor, 1) make him or her think he or she is important and 2) at least officially go through the pre-med office.

these advisors have huge egos. they yield too much power.
 
my school has a committee, but I missed the spring cycle, and don't want to wait for the fall cycle, so I'm doing it on my own. This requires me to send 2 LOR's instead of collecting 5 to make one composite committe letter. I heard the committe is preferred, but not necessary. Besides, I can secure 2 awesome letters (and 1 for the MSTP) that I believe would be better than the one written by 5 people who don't know me.Good luck
 
these advisors have huge egos. they yield too much power.
wield, perhaps? 😀

i've always liked my pre-med advisor. before i met her, i heard that she had a reputation for being a hard-ass. turns out that this was true...if you're an idiot with no business applying to med school. for me (and most others) she was/is great.

guess i'm lucky.
 
i've come to believe that some schools will reject you if you choose to forego the committee process

i also believe that some schools don't care about the committee process, and some care so little they'll even assume they've received a letter from the committee if you use your school's letter service

my advice is to use the process unless it's an undue burden, and to apply early!
 
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