maximum amount of lOR

[bannie22]

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so how many would u suggest i send it till med schools get sick of it?

right now i have two sci profs
one engineering prof (i dunno if this is sci)
one language
one geography

and one from high school

thats 6.

will med schools even accept 6? or will they be annoyed that im
sending more than the 2 sci + 1 humanities😱

 

[BigChubbyMD]

Check with schools, most schools have limits. Also, unless your high school letter is AMAZING, don't include it. High school is too much in the past to include anything that isn't a life long honor (Eagle Scout, AP/IB special honors, research with near by md's or college profs, etc)

 

[shemarty]

That being said, you're still allowed to send as many as you want, if they all arrive in one packet. Even if the school has a "limit."
Use good judgement to decide which ones to send.

 

[bannie22]

shemarty. what do u mean by arriving in one packet?

do u mean i must use the letter packet?

or do u mean sending 6 individual letters in a single go.

thank you!~

 

[scattun]

shemarty. what do u mean by arriving in one packet?

do u mean i must use the letter packet?

or do u mean sending 6 individual letters in a single go.

thank you!~

I think she means you have to use the letter packet. If you don't use the packet, you should definitely check with schools to find out their max letters. From the few I have come across, I think it is usually around 5 or six. On that note, can you get rid of some letters? Considering, that they are all from instructors, are they going to say anything significantly different from one another? As with most things in this process, quality is going to trump quantity.

 

[BigChubbyMD]

I thought most schools have maximum amounts for letter packets. Something like 2 science and 1 humanities profs or 1 committee letter. Then maybe an optional letter if you have been out of school

 

[Blahblahologist]

I'd have reservations about the high school letter, unless there are truly unusual circumstances involved (you're applying to med school in your freshman year of college). Even if you had a teacher you loved in HS, unless he or she can talk first-hand about what you've been doing the last three years, I'd hold that one back.

The other ones sound great.

 

[mannyowens]

I was recently checking out the med school sites and I noticed the LOR limits. I am also sending a letter packet which consists of 6 letters. Would it negatively affect one's application if you exceed the limit, even if sending a letter packet

 

[shemarty]

I thought most schools have maximum amounts for letter packets. Something like 2 science and 1 humanities profs or 1 committee letter. Then maybe an optional letter if you have been out of school

I just posted this exact reply on another LOR thread. I think I'll add this to my MDApps advice list...



If you have 6(+) strong letters that each speak to a different aspect of your application, send them all.

I submitted 8 (no committee letters) to every school. I called up each school that I applied to last year to ask if it was okay to exceed their limit, and they said that as long as they arrived in a packet, it was okay.

I understood this to mean that they did not want to receive 8 pieces of mail, but they didn't care if one piece of mail had 8+ sheets of paper in it.

My premed advisor read the letters and advised me to keep all of them and helped me to put them in order for my packet. The best ones were at the top of the packet, in case they decided not to read them all. Some of my "required" letters were towards the end of the packet, so if they were truly required, they would've had to read/skim the entire packet.

Exceeding the LOR limit didn't hurt me. Don't be excessive, though. I think 10+ would be insane.