Letters of Recommendation- How to

[WhittyPsyche]

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Hi everyone,

So I have to elect my letter writers for my premed committee soon, and I was wondering whether there was a method/strategy to how people select what to include in the committee or what not or how many is too many (is there such a thing?) I know the max for each school tends to vary though. How are "too many" letters perceived?

So my committee requires 4 letters; two from BCPM, one from humanities/other department, and one from any department as long as they are a faculty member.

So for committee: I'm doing 1 Bio, 2nd maybe Physics/Orgo the humanities I'm trying to make strategic. (Theology/Bioethics) And the 4th is a neurologist/faculty who has been my professor for two neuro classes at the Med school and I've also shadowed him over months, and just accepted an RA position for my gap year in his lab.

I have 3 neuroscience professors in interdisciplinary cogneuro that are seated in the psych departments so can't idk if they can go in committee, but know for a fact that they will write extremely strong letters so I want them too. (I am obsessed with neuro and it's a strong theme of my academic journey)

And then my PI for a lab I was the manager for

So is it too much if I do all 8? The committee counts as 1 right? Then I can add the other four to amcas. Or do I need to narrow them down; just the committee package + PI?


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[P0ke]

Hi everyone,

So I have to elect my letter writers for my premed committee soon, and I was wondering whether there was a method/strategy to how people select what to include in the committee or what not or how many is too many (is there such a thing?) I know the max for each school tends to vary though. How are "too many" letters perceived?

So my committee requires 4 letters; two from BCPM, one from humanities/other department, and one from any department as long as they are a faculty member.

So for committee: I'm doing 1 Bio, 2nd maybe Physics/Orgo the humanities I'm trying to make strategic. (Theology/Bioethics) And the 4th is a neurologist/faculty who has been my professor for two neuro classes at the Med school and I've also shadowed him over months, and just accepted an RA position for my gap year in his lab.

I have 3 neuroscience professors in interdisciplinary cogneuro that are seated in the psych departments so can't idk if they can go in committee, but know for a fact that they will write extremely strong letters so I want them too. (I am obsessed with neuro and it's a strong theme of my academic journey)

And then my PI for a lab I was the manager for

So is it too much if I do all 8? The committee counts as 1 right? Then I can add the other four to aamcas. Or do I need to narrow them down; just the committee package + PI?


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I think you'll be able to upload the letters to AMCAS, but many schools place a limit on how many letters they'll accept. You'll have to read each school's individual policy and strategically select the letters for each school that you think would be best. You do this while adding schools on AMCAS.

 

[Cookiess]

I've noticed that a number of schools specify that they prefer a committee letter if available and accept individual LORs only if a committee letter is not available. I would look up specific schools you're planning to apply to and read about their LOR requirements from their website.

Also in my opinion, 8 LOR is too many. I obtained 8 LOR but only used 5 for most schools. It's a delicate balance of having several strong LOR versus having too many LOR where all of them may not get read in depth.

 

[WhittyPsyche]

I think you'll be able to upload the letters to AMCAS, but many schools place a limit on how many letters they'll accept. You'll have to read each school's individual policy and strategically select the letters for each school that you think would be best. You do this while adding schools on AMCAS.

Yeah I know. It's that some schools say 8/10 or no limit is why I'm wondering if there is some unspoken rule of where to really draw the line in practice not just what's allowed.




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[WhittyPsyche]

I've noticed that a number of schools specify that they prefer a committee letter if available and accept individual LORs only if a committee letter is not available. I would look up specific schools you're planning to apply to and read about their LOR requirements from their website.

Also in my opinion, 8 LOR is too many. I obtained 8 LOR but only used 5 for most schools. It's a delicate balance of having several strong LOR versus having too many LOR where all of them may not get read in depth.

Right I figured it's a delicate balance. It's tough because the committee from the rules is excluding a lot of my strong ones. Well they're all really strong, and all offered before I could ask, so I'm confident they will be great.

I guess I'll just have them all sent then pick and choose like you said.

I'll look into the committee/individual. I just got the MSAR but haven't looked through in detail yet. I assumed since committee counted as one slot I could add more.


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