LOR trouble... Interfolio?

[willthatsall]

Some people on here were saying that their school had a letter service as part of the career center that would store all their LOR's for them and send them out together to schools as needed. My career center has never heard of such a thing, and the director sent me this email in return after I asked him about it:

"Will-

I spoke with Dr. X who coordinates the admission process for X med school - he talked like he had never heard of this before and was going to refer it to the faculty admissions folks for their input. It sounds like we need to contact the schools you're applying to and ask if they will accept basically a credential file of all your application materials from our office.

As far as we're concerned, we will assist you in any way possible as long as the schools you're applying to find it acceptable. It didn't sound like X was going to get on board too quickly, so if you're thinking about them, you may need to contact Dr. X and see what he suggests.

If you want me to contact the schools you're applying to, I will - just give me the schools and we'll do the rest.

Take care,

X"

So apparently not all med schools accept all letters packaged together? They want all your letters sent directly from the letter writers themselves? What about interfolio? Do med schools trust them and accept letters stored there? I am hesitant to try to convince my school's career service to keep my letters for me because it seems as if they have no idea what is going on and I don't want to risk it. So I am leaning towards interfolio. Anyone else used them?

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[Medikit]

I didn't have any problems with using interfolio.

 

[Emergency!]

So apparently not all med schools accept all letters packaged together? They want all your letters sent directly from the letter writers themselves?

I wouldn't see why a medical school wouldn't accept LOR's packaged together from your school as long as they are confidential LOR's with signed waivers from you waiving your right to see them.

What about interfolio? Do med schools trust them and accept letters stored there? I am hesitant to try to convince my school's career service to keep my letters for me because it seems as if they have no idea what is going on and I don't want to risk it. So I am leaning towards interfolio. Anyone else used them?

Interfolio is a great service. Make sure that you print out the correct waiver form (remember that medical schools prefer confidential letters) and give it to your LOR writers to send in with your letters. They can submit your LOR's to Interfolio via snail mail, fax or e-mail (there is an electronic signature service). None of my LOR writers had used the service before, and they had no trouble with it. Interfolio sends out your letters quickly to medschools.

I used Interfolio for sending my LOR's to all of the schools I applied to (even one that made it sound like they wouldn't accept letters sent in that manner) and had no problems (I got accepted to that school, btw).

There was a recent thread on Interfolio that you might want to do a search for.

I highly recommend it.

 

[willthatsall]

How about this scenario: My school has a Pre-Med committee that writes a letter for every applicant. You aren't allowed to apply without this letter. But they have this policy that they only make one mailing per year for each applicant. So you have to turn in all your envelopes and have them mailed all at once. Do you think my pre-med committee would mind just sending this letter straight to interfolio and letting me deal with the rest? I have no idea why they only make one mailing per year...I don't want my letters held up to some schools because I'm not sure if one school is going to send me a secondary or something, you know? My school is so bootleg when it comes to the application process.

 

[Emergency!]

How about this scenario: My school has a Pre-Med committee that writes a letter for every applicant. You aren't allowed to apply without this letter. But they have this policy that they only make one mailing per year for each applicant. So you have to turn in all your envelopes and have them mailed all at once. Do you think my pre-med committee would mind just sending this letter straight to interfolio and letting me deal with the rest? I have no idea why they only make one mailing per year...I don't want my letters held up to some schools because I'm not sure if one school is going to send me a secondary or something, you know? My school is so bootleg when it comes to the application process.

It's worth asking if they would allow the letter to be sent to Interfolio so that you could have the letter sent when the med schools ask for it, rather than their one shot mailing.

Just a question - how can they keep you from applying without this letter?? I don't see how a school can keep you from submitting the AMCAS, taking the MCAT and submitting secondary applications.

 

[willthatsall]

It's worth asking if they would allow the letter to be sent to Interfolio so that you could have the letter sent when the med schools ask for it, rather than their one shot mailing.

Just a question - how can they keep you from applying without this letter?? I don't see how a school can keep you from submitting the AMCAS, taking the MCAT and submitting secondary applications.

Yeah, you are right. What I meant is that we have a committee so if you apply without their letter, any school that knows you have a committee is going to wonder why you didn't get a committee letter (institutional action, etc.). But it actually is possible. And now that I think about it, most of the schools I am applying to probably haven't heard of my ugrad. But the other problem is that most of the science professors are part of the pre-med committee, so other than the committee letter, I can't really get any science LOR's. Whatever, they better send it to interfolio!