Letters of Rec

[DoctorAJ]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Now, I know that the "non-pharmcas" schools have their own letters of rec requirements, and I understand that the letters have to be sent individually to each schools....BUT for pharmcas schools on the website it has a list of each school's individual prefferences..."3 letters, 2 letters, one letter from a Teaching Assistant required from one, one letter from a Pharmacistrequired for another..etc"

Me, I'm getting 2 science letters of rec written for me, ONE liberal arts teacher and ONE supervisor for my volutneer....I know the limit is 3 letters for pharmcas, however because of the different requirements for each school, I think it would be most logical to send ALL my letters of rec, and pharmcas determine which schools require what and send it. (some schools say you MUST have 2 science profs, others say you can ONLY have one) Not only that, but the schools that require 2 letters not 3, how does pharmcas determine which 2 to send? this whole system seems really disorganized, unless I'm overlooking something, can somebody please tell me how this works?

 

[DHG]

....I know the limit is 3 letters for pharmcas, however because of the different requirements for each school, I think it would be most logical to send ALL my letters of rec, and pharmcas determine which schools require what and send it. (some schools say you MUST have 2 science profs, others say you can ONLY have one) Not only that, but the schools that require 2 letters not 3, how does pharmcas determine which 2 to send? this whole system seems really disorganized, unless I'm overlooking something, can somebody please tell me how this works?

I was wondering the same thing. I would rather that schools preferred LORs to be sent directly to them, that makes more sense. PharmCas does seem pretty disorganized. And did they go out of the way to make their website difficult, or what? Sheesh. That is the most cumbersome, user un-friendly website. Can't wait till this is over.

 

[annievu]

I was wondering the same thing. I would rather that schools preferred LORs to be sent directly to them, that makes more sense. PharmCas does seem pretty disorganized. And did they go out of the way to make their website difficult, or what? Sheesh. That is the most cumbersome, user un-friendly website. Can't wait till this is over.

yea, i thought it is more difficult to use PharmCAS...each school requires different type and numbers of LORs....how pharmCAS know about that and do the matching? 🙁 On the other hand, it sure saves us (and teachers who send LoR's) a lot of time if we do apply to many schools (because or else we would have to send A LOT of the same files to diff places)...... 🙂

 

[crossjb]

On a positive note, I really like the electronic format of submissions. You know immediately what date your LORs have been received by PharmCAS and whether or not your referrer is slacking on your letter. I dropped one professor for another last week because of this. It's good to know your letters are in. 🙂

 

[OoKellyoO]

Pharmcas is charging way too much money for doing nothing!!!!!!!

 

[lola69r]

PHARMCAS does not determine which letters go where, they will send whatever is forwarded to them to all the schools...also, you are only allowed 3 LOR's w/ PHARMCAS and it has to be the ones that you list on your reference page. They won't send off any that were not listed on that page...this information is listed in the directions page and I believe the FAQ's as well....I just had to read through all the LOR directions for all my schools and just find the 3 that were common in all of them...I'm getting 2 letters from science profs and 1 from a pharmacist...one of the schools I'm applying to wants a liberal arts prof but you can substitute a letter from a pharmacist for that one...I hope this helps

 

[DHG]

PHARMCAS does not determine which letters go where, they will send whatever is forwarded to them to all the schools...also, you are only allowed 3 LOR's w/ PHARMCAS and it has to be the ones that you list on your reference page. They won't send off any that were not listed on that page...this information is listed in the directions page and I believe the FAQ's as well....I just had to read through all the LOR directions for all my schools and just find the 3 that were common in all of them...I'm getting 2 letters from science profs and 1 from a pharmacist...one of the schools I'm applying to wants a liberal arts prof but you can substitute a letter from a pharmacist for that one...I hope this helps

Some schools have differing requirements, though... ie 2 letters, three letters, No second science professor, etc. I think if they are going to charge so much, they need to send the letters YOU want sent to the schools YOU want them sent to. Seems like a big, unorganized mess. Almost like, why have PharmCas at all if they're not going to pay attention to the requirements, but just sent whatever they get, in the order they get it?
I'm only doing 4 schools, but they are all have differing LOR requirements. To cover all required LOR's at these 4 schools, I need 4 different specific LORs, that's just the way it worked out. And Pharmcas is not going to care which letters get sent where. Example: The first 2 letters recieved by a school that only requires 2 letters--- and states that extra letters will not be read ---may not be the letters they require because Pharmcas is just going to send whatever they get, whenever they get it. Grrrr. And I just now notice the 3 max thing. Double Grrr.

 

[DoctorAJ]

I just called pharmcas this morning and spoke with this guy, he said this is the first year pharmcas is actually sending out the letter of recs, and that probably explains why it's so disorganized and not well thought-out. However, that still is no excuse for a major company to make such a major mess up like that, they're gonna get a lot of complaints I'm sure and will probably change it in the next few app cycles, but what good does that do for us 05/06ers!!!

 

[DHG]

that still is no excuse for a major company to make such a major mess up like that, they're gonna get a lot of complaints I'm sure and will probably change it in the next few app cycles, but what good does that do for us 05/06ers!!!

Especially when it costs us major bucks.

 

[RLK]

Some schools have differing requirements, though... ie 2 letters, three letters, No second science professor, etc. I think if they are going to charge so much, they need to send the letters YOU want sent to the schools YOU want them sent to. Seems like a big, unorganized mess. Almost like, why have PharmCas at all if they're not going to pay attention to the requirements, but just sent whatever they get, in the order they get it?
I'm only doing 4 schools, but they are all have differing LOR requirements. To cover all required LOR's at these 4 schools, I need 4 different specific LORs, that's just the way it worked out. And Pharmcas is not going to care which letters get sent where. Example: The first 2 letters recieved by a school that only requires 2 letters--- and states that extra letters will not be read ---may not be the letters they require because Pharmcas is just going to send whatever they get, whenever they get it. Grrrr. And I just now notice the 3 max thing. Double Grrr.

That sucks. I have two schools right now that I'm going to apply to using pharmcas, and with just those two it's $175. And on top of that, at least one of the two wants more money with their supplemental application. I think they should either use pharmcas or not use it, but don't charge us twice.

 

[b*rizzle]

I just called pharmcas this morning and spoke with this guy, he said this is the first year pharmcas is actually sending out the letter of recs, and that probably explains why it's so disorganized and not well thought-out. However, that still is no excuse for a major company to make such a major mess up like that, they're gonna get a lot of complaints I'm sure and will probably change it in the next few app cycles, but what good does that do for us 05/06ers!!!

I was a little disgusted by all of this. I feel like I'm just paying them to lose my stuff.