Late Committee Letter

[SouthernGent]

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My committee is saying they will most likely not have my composite letter done until mid September or even early October. I am debating on whether or not to forgo the committee in exchange for submitting my app at a reasonable time since I have everything else completed, including 3 LORs. Anyone experience a similar situation, if so what did you do?

 

[ngc 2170]

That is ridiculously late. I would suggest contacting the committee and alerting them that submitting the letter that late significantly disadvantages applicants from your school.

It may actually be a reasonable idea to bypass the committee letter — if you wait for that letter, chances are your application chances will be damaged simply by virtue of your completion date being well into interview invite season.

 

[nwts]

My committee is saying they will most likely not have my composite letter done until mid September or even early October. I am debating on whether or not to forgo the committee in exchange for submitting my app at a reasonable time since I have everything else completed, including 3 LORs. Anyone experience a similar situation, if so what did you do?

Just curious, is this something they told you specifically, or are they submitting letters this late for all applicants?

 

[sunshine02]

When would it be considered late for letters to be in?

 

[Dr. Retractor]

When would it be considered late for letters to be in?

Late August/early September would probably be about as late as you'd want to go without significantly decreasing your chances.

 

[njtrimed]

I'm in exactly the same position, and I just asked all my LOR writers to send their letters to Interfolio. I cannot afford to wait until September-October! I'm non-trad and live in a different state from my undergrad institution, so I'm hoping that combined with the fact that the letter will take so long is a good enough reason to bypass the committee. I wouldn't risk waiting until that late in the cycle, personally.

 

[SouthernGent]

Just curious, is this something they told you specifically, or are they submitting letters this late for all applicants?

The committee stated on their website and in the information sessions, rather emphatically, that they do 25 letters every 2 weeks. For those who took a late MCAT (June), the committtee said it would take at least until mid-September. I have two classmates who entered their MCAT scores the day they got them into the system, which is just short of a month at this point, and they have not even been told the committee is writing their letters. I won't get my score till mid-July, and I have to wait for all those ahead of me in line (which the committee won't say how many there are...) to be written. This makes waiting at least a month and a half seem very precarious when I already have everything else.

While I trust that the committee's process is normally effective, they did not seem to take into account that everyone would be taking the MCAT between April and May for the most part. I think this is probably contributing to such a late target date.

 

[Banco]

If your school is a known pre-med feeder school then med schools likely know the time when your committee starts sending out letters. So it may be okay. I do agree that it is pushing it a little.