Late committee letter

[Helixkam]

Hey guys I'm freaking out a bit. I have some low stats with a 3.43 gpa and 36 MCAT and I just found out that due to my teachers dragging their feet and a slow commitee that they won't be able to send my letter until mid to late September. I'm wondering how I should deal with this, it really sucks to have other people screw you over. How late is that to get completed. I'm already submitting secondaries on my own right now.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[lmw312]

-

 

[Jimsy]

Hey guys I'm freaking out a bit. I have some low stats with a 3.43 gpa and 36 MCAT and I just found out that due to my teachers dragging their feet and a slow commitee that they won't be able to send my letter until mid to late September. I'm wondering how I should deal with this, it really sucks to have other people screw you over. How late is that to get completed. I'm already submitting secondaries on my own right now.

Man..that sucks. This was one of the reasons why I didn't ask for a committee letter.

 

[funniful]

Same...seems like most of the schools won't even look at your application till everything is in...verified AMCAS, secondary, application fee, LORs. My school won't even start writing the committee letter until we send in a hard copy of our verified AMCAS and starts sending out our letter packets in late July/early August. Seems like people just start hearing back from schools later for interviews around Sept/Oct. Submitted in late June and probably won't get verified till late July, so been prewriting everything so that everything will be in and completed by mid August hopefully.

 

[sazerac]

Hey guys I'm freaking out a bit. I have some low stats with a 3.43 gpa and 36 MCAT and I just found out that due to my teachers dragging their feet and a slow commitee that they won't be able to send my letter until mid to late September. I'm wondering how I should deal with this, it really sucks to have other people screw you over. How late is that to get completed. I'm already submitting secondaries on my own right now.

Being complete at the end of September drops your LizzyM score by about 3 points, compared to those who were complete on time. So it's like you have a 3.43/33 (67 points) now.

 

[SilverCat]

Ouch.

See if nagging will get you somewhere; trying calling your premed advisor often to see if the process can be hurried up. Don't know if this will work, but being complete in September is going to place you in the late pile.

I don't know if it's possible at this point, but you might try circumventing the committee process and having your LORS sent by the writers directly to AMCAS.

 

[sworzeh]

Being complete at the end of September drops your LizzyM score by about 3 points, compared to those who were complete on time. So it's like you have a 3.43/33 (67 points) now.

What is "on time?" August?

 

[SilverCat]

What is "on time?" August?

I would say being complete before August places you in the early pile, being complete in August places you in the 'on-time' pile and anything after August would be late. It's a completely subjective measure though, and does depend a good deal on your grades; in other words, someone with a 4.0/42 doesn't have to worry so much about lateness as someone with a 3.5/30.

 

[joeschmo1991]

It is my understanding that most respected undergrad schools (the ivies) have pre-health committees, and that their letters typically go out in early / mid August. Med schools seem to want these committee letters if an applicant can get one, so wouldn't an applicant from one of these (Ivy League) schools not be at a disadvantage due to a "late" committee letter - I'm assuming med schools know that these committees take time.

 

[SilverCat]

It is my understanding that most respected undergrad schools (the ivies) have pre-health committees, and that their letters typically go out in early / mid August. Med schools seem to want these committee letters if an applicant can get one, so wouldn't an applicant from one of these (Ivy League) schools not be at a disadvantage due to a "late" committee letter - I'm assuming med schools know that these committees take time.

There's still a big difference between early/ mid August and early/ mid September. Especially for someone with a 3.42 GPA.

 

[joeschmo1991]

So is it recommended for those people to circumvent their committee process? I'm personally waiting on my committee letter, and am expecting it in the first two weeks of August unfortunately. It just seems odd that med schools would view these applications as "late" when the reason they are is because the committee letter that they want is holding them up.

Edit: Just saw your reference to August and September, that makes sense. I'm assuming committees aren't that late unless there are extenuating circumstances (late letters, etc.).

 

[Helixkam]

yea this is a weird situation considering that so many schools use a committee letter and it's seen as very odd if you try and circumvent the process of getting one and try to send them on your own. I already submitted some secondaries that I have received and hopefully the schools are used to big schools like mine sending late letters. At some schools the committee doesnt even start meeting till august or late july and takes over a month to write a letter. this is all very frustrating lol

 

[GatsbyK]

I'm in the same boat but they START meeting in late august / early september and take over a month to finalize.... meaning I wont be marked verified until October probably...