Letters of Recommendation

[leibish01]

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Im having trouble understanding the process for submitting letters of recommendation.
I understand that most schools (of course depends on the school, which ive already checked) require a premed commit. letter, if there is no premed commit. u need atleast 2 science faculty and 1 character reference (my situation).

The only question i have is what do i do after someone has agreed to write me a letter?

Do i get the letter from the individual (signed/sealed..etc) and submit it myself, or does the individual have to submit it?

I have been told by some schools to send it in myself, and others say the individual should send it.
im just kinda confused. what difference does it make if i send it or they send it? furthermore, how would a med school know who sent the actual letter?


lee

 

[Flopotomist]

find a letter service (interfolio is one) or see if your school has a letter service. WIth this service, you have your letter writers send the letter to them, and then the service will copy the letter and send it to the schools. Otherwise, you are going to have to ask the letter writers to mail 20+ separate letters, and you have to try to keep track of it all, and it ends up being a giant mess.

 

[leibish01]

i understand that these services exsist..........what i do not understand is why do i have to use one?

how is a medical school going to know that the letters are being sent from a "service" and not from me? meaning to say - i would act as this "service"

 

[Prospero]

At least with Interfolio (which I used after my school decide they were too good to provide a letter service) they send a cover letter with your packet of letters. The school knows that the letters are all confidential and they all come from one place at one time. Kind of nice. Oh, and some schools will accept electronic submissions from Interfolio which makes the submitting that much quicker and secure (and cheaper). It seems like a lot of unnecessary hassle to organize all that crap yourself.

 

[Flopotomist]

i understand that these services exsist..........what i do not understand is why do i have to use one?

how is a medical school going to know that the letters are being sent from a "service" and not from me? meaning to say - i would act as this "service"

Uhm - you can try to save a few bucks by violating the rules (which require the letter writers to disclose whether or not you have seen the letters, and if you HAVE seen the letters, they carry less weight). I am not sure why you would want to risk not getting into medical school though.

Come on - the whole application process is going to cost thousands of dollars. Spend $100 on the letter service. Geesh!