MD letter, etc vs Committee letter?

[themightyquinn]

I searched a bit and googled, and still am not sure I understand. I have a committee letter and I'm getting ready to submit letters and I'm still a little confused. I have a Doctor LOR and a LOR from previous international work experience that I was planning on submitting along with the committee letter, but now I'm seeing from a lot of schools that if you have a committee letter they only want and will only read one letter.

Am I misunderstanding -- they only want 1 letter from my school (representing my professors) and still want at least an MD recommendation from somewhere? or did I screw up and should have had my MD and work recommendation letter submitted to be included by the committee or incorporated into a composite letter? The MD LOR seems like it should be an integral part of the application and I have a good one so it feels weird that nobody would want it...

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[ciestar]

You don’t need a LOR from a physician for like...any MD schools? (Maybe one? Im not sure)

Schools like committee letters.

 

[coffee&scrubs]

Usually, pre-health committees require you to submit a number of recommendation letters and essays to them so they can compile either a consolidated letter with excerpts from your recommendation letters or a packet containing a committee letter and your submissions. Medical schools usually prefer this because everything is all in one place. However, for some students, pre-health committee letters aren't an option, so they self submit other letters in lieu of one committee letter. Most medical school websites say they expect one or the other. Anyways, if you didn't already submit the MD letter to your pre-health committee, it won't hurt you to submit your committee letter AND your MD letter to medical schools.

 

[gyngyn]

The MD LOR seems like it should be an integral part of the application and I have a good one so it feels weird that nobody would want it...

Just let that weird feeling wash over you...and then let it go. Please don't send us a "physician letter."

On the other hand, DO schools do love that DO letter.

 

[themightyquinn]

Thanks for the feedback folks. Well...oops. My committee just formed last year and since I'm a non-traditional and didn't have an advisor, I only even found out about it second hand after I was done with my coursework and they never mentioned anything about anything other than letters from professors and an interview. I guess for those schools which strictly specify only the committee letter I'll go that route, and submit my other letters for those that take up to 3. This particular Dr. I've known on a professional and personal level now for around 5 years -- so not just a couple of days shadowing, and both his letter and my prior supervisor letter were going to fill in and provide 3rd party corroboration for various aspects of my application that the pre-health committee couldn't really speak to. Maybe won't carry as much weight, but hopefully won't detract from the application either.

 

[LebronManning]

So medical schools don’t want a letter of rec from an MD in evaluating whether you’ll be a good doc but they definitely need one from your art/polisci and gen chem teachers. Lol

 

[Robin-jay]

So medical schools don’t want a letter of rec from an MD in evaluating whether you’ll be a good doc but they definitely need one from your art/polisci and gen chem teachers. Lol

A least gen. chem teachers are science orientated. In medical school, we use chemistry concepts here and there, especially in biochemistry.

However, having a letter from a non-science faculty letter as requirement is questionable.

I earned my chemistry masters degree, and hadn't had a non-science course in like 3 years when I applied. Some schools straight up said they needed a non-science faculty member lol, as though my research adviser who I produced publishable data for science journals for years was sub-par lol.

Welcome to admissions.

 

[Lucca]

So medical schools don’t want a letter of rec from an MD in evaluating whether you’ll be a good doc but they definitely need one from your art/polisci and gen chem teachers. Lol

jokes on them, one of my literature professors was an MD.

tbh tho, letters from physicians probably arent very helpful. Unless they have worked with you on research, volunteering, etc. or something more involved than just shadowing, they dont really have a way of assessing you other than "Lebron was nice and professional."