LOR Confusion

[coconutfarmer]

Hey Guys,

I am a bit confused about the LOR process for the application.

I went through my school's Pre-Med Committee and am expecting a packet.

So as per the instructions, I am supposed to put the name of my pre-med advisor who is compiling the packet (because all my other letters are being send to the school and then will form a big packet at the end with the committee letter and the other LORs) on the AMCAS application. I did that.

So my question is what happens after this? Does the advisor (or the undergraduate institution) send the letters to AMCAS? All the schools that I have applied to participate in the program where AMCAS can transmit the letters. But then my school participates in the VirtualEvals where they can directly and digitally send the letters.

So if my school sends the packet to AMCAS then will AMCAS forward the letter packet to the respective school? I was under this assumption but when I talked to my Pre-Med counselor, he advised me that I need to send him a list of all the schools that I am applying to... I don't understand why. Are the Pre-Med committee people going to send letters to all of my schools?

I know that there is probably a simple answer to all of this and I am just thinking too much about it but I would really appreciate it if someone could take the time to explain the process, including the different programs like "VirtualEvals" etc.

Thank you in advance for all your help and insight.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[NickNaylor]

If the pre-health office that prepared the packet is sending it to the AMCAS Letter Service, then you can send the letters to the particular schools using the AMCAS app. You don't need to do anything else other than create a letter entry on AMCAS, provide the office with the form AMCAS creates for you, and have them send the packet. AMCAS will then forward the packet to the schools that you designate.

There isn't a universal protocol for how to submit letters as it's up to each office. Sending the packet to each school individually seems stupid since sending it once to AMCAS would be significantly less work, but the office can do things however they want.

 

[flatearth22]

Your school writes a committee letter and sends that along with the other letters in a packet to VirtualEvals. VirtualEvals then transmits the packet to AMCAS which transmits it to your schools.

Got this from here - http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/11156581-post814.html

 

[coconutfarmer]

If the pre-health office that prepared the packet is sending it to the AMCAS Letter Service, then you can send the letters to the particular schools using the AMCAS app. You don't need to do anything else other than create a letter entry on AMCAS, provide the office with the form AMCAS creates for you, and have them send the packet. AMCAS will then forward the packet to the schools that you designate.

There isn't a universal protocol for how to submit letters as it's up to each office. Sending the packet to each school individually seems stupid since sending it once to AMCAS would be significantly less work, but the office can do things however they want.

Thanks for the help. See that is exactly what I thought! It makes sense for the undergrad school to just send the letter to AMCAS and then have the AMCAS send it the med schools. But then it threw me off when they required me send the names of all the schools that I was applying to...

So all I need to do is put that guy's name in the AMCAS primary right? And what do you mean by "provide the office with the form AMCAS creates for you"? You mean the undergrad office right?

 

[pkwraith]

Thanks for the help. See that is exactly what I thought! It makes sense for the undergrad school to just send the letter to AMCAS and then have the AMCAS send it the med schools. But then it threw me off when they required me send the names of all the schools that I was applying to...

So all I need to do is put that guy's name in the AMCAS primary right? And what do you mean by "provide the office with the form AMCAS creates for you"? You mean the undergrad office right?

If I remember correctly. Right, you put the Advisor's name in primary. After that, AMCAS will generate a page/letter and a Letter ID for you. You send those documents to your Advisor. He uploads to VirtualEvals and it should get connected in AMCAS based on the correct Letter ID.

After that, you designate in AMCAS which schools you will send them to.

I don't know why Premed offices ask for schools anymore when they do that, since it doesn't do anything. I guess to charge you money by number of schools.

 

[BenzylAcetate]

I was actually having this same problem with my committee letter as well. I e-mailed the committee head and he basically told me that the office sends out the letter packet to each school individually because of the (very few) schools which do not participate in the AMCAS letter service, even if you are not applying to any of these schools. Not the most logical process, but he's kind of responsible for making sure my application gets complete so I'm just going to leave that alone for now.

Ultimately though, all this means to you is that you need to create a letter entry in your AMCAS application and mark which schools the letter will be sent to. There's a "letter request form" on the application under the "letters of evaluation" section of the AMACAS which should be sent to your schools committee. Depending on how your committee operates they may want a list of all schools you are applying to or only a list of schools you will be sending secondaries to, you'll have to check with the committee.

 

[coconutfarmer]

Thank you very much for all the awesome information guys. I think this muddled mess is beginning to clearing up a bit. I can definitely see how they can put the rest of us through a jumbled mess of red tape just to cover those schools who do not participate in the AMCAS Letter Service.

My committee supposedly only starts sending out the packets after Mid-July. Do you think that this is going to hurt me? I know that it is still early in the process but I just want to know if there is chance that my application can be held back because of the Letters even if I kill myself sending back the secondaries? Honestly, there is nothing really I can do about that now but I guess I just want to know if I am just being paranoid!

 

[NickNaylor]

Thank you very much for all the awesome information guys. I think this muddled mess is beginning to clearing up a bit. I can definitely see how they can put the rest of us through a jumbled mess of red tape just to cover those schools who do not participate in the AMCAS Letter Service.

My committee supposedly only starts sending out the packets after Mid-July. Do you think that this is going to hurt me? I know that it is still early in the process but I just want to know if there is chance that my application can be held back because of the Letters even if I kill myself sending back the secondaries? Honestly, there is nothing really I can do about that now but I guess I just want to know if I am just being paranoid!

I was in a similar boat last year in that the committee letter packet wasn't available until early August. I don't think it hurt me a bit.

Go ahead and complete the secondaries so that you're complete as soon as the letter packet is received by the schools.