Most cost-effective for sending my LORs?

[chappystick393]

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Hey everyone,

I have all of my LORs stored with my undergrad school's health professions office. I have continued sending letters there since I graduated to have them all in one place. However, I am not sure if this is new (seems like they just implemented this in the years since I graduated) but they are now charging $50 to send letters to AACOMAS and $60 to send letters to AMCAS. Even though this cost is nothing compared to the rest of the application cycle costs, I would like to save any money I possibly can.

My question is - would using a service such as Interfolio be a cheaper option? I think I saw that the yearly membership is like $50 and then you pay a certain amount for each letter that you send out. I would have no problem contacting my letter writers again and asking them to send the letters to Interfolio. Or even sending them the link to AACOMAS or AMCAS directly would be cheaper, correct? As that wouldn't cost anything except the peace of mind surrounding having all of your letters together?

 

[Magus5454]

Hey everyone,

I have all of my LORs stored with my undergrad school's health professions office. I have continued sending letters there since I graduated to have them all in one place. However, I am not sure if this is new (seems like they just implemented this in the years since I graduated) but they are now charging $50 to send letters to AACOMAS and $60 to send letters to AMCAS. Even though this cost is nothing compared to the rest of the application cycle costs, I would like to save any money I possibly can.

My question is - would using a service such as Interfolio be a cheaper option? I think I saw that the yearly membership is like $50 and then you pay a certain amount for each letter that you send out. I would have no problem contacting my letter writers again and asking them to send the letters to Interfolio. Or even sending them the link to AACOMAS or AMCAS directly would be cheaper, correct? As that wouldn't cost anything except the peace of mind surrounding having all of your letters together?

I always had mine sent to AACOMAS and AMCAS

 

[goldcoast260]

Curious about this as well. I'm having my school send a letter packet, but one of my recommenders (specifically for ACOMMAS since he's a DO) is sending the letter on his own. I feel like the easiest thing would to plug his info into the actual application and have him upload it directly....but I always hear abut interfolio so I'm wondering if there's a catch/restrictions from uploading it right to the application.

 

[Shafwa]

From what I recall using Interfolio - the year long membership is $48 and covers the cost of sending your letters to up to 50 locations (schools).

Dossier - Interfolio

 

[goldcoast260]

From what I recall using Interfolio - the year long membership is $48 and covers the cost of sending your letters to up to 50 locations (schools).

thanks for the info! I'm assuming that using AACOMAS directly is probably more expensive that this, and is why Interfolio is a good option?

 

[Magus5454]

thanks for the info! I'm assuming that using AACOMAS directly is probably more expensive that this, and is why Interfolio is a good option?

No it's free. The advantage to interfolio is being able to store your letters

 

[Shafwa]

thanks for the info! I'm assuming that using AACOMAS directly is probably more expensive that this, and is why Interfolio is a good option?

The advantage of Interfolio is that you only have to ask your letter writers to submit their letter ONCE into your Interfolio Dossier. Otherwise if you plan on applying to MD & DO, you have to have them submit it into both AMCAS and AACOMAS (which are both free).

 

[smukke]

Interfolio.

+ You have the peace of mind of knowing that the letter was actually sent rather than depending on phone/email tag with your undergrad's office.

 

[goldcoast260]

The responses were really helpful! Not to hijack the thread, but my letter in question is from a DO that I'm only sending to AACOMAS and not AMCAS....for my situation, should I just have the doctor send it directly to AACOMAS through the app?

 

[chappystick393]

Thanks everyone for your responses! Really appreciate it. And @goldcoast260 from what I understand, from Interfolio you can also choose which letters to send where so you can choose to send the DO letter to AACOMAS only (along with the other letters you're sending there) and then send your AMCAS letters with the MD letter to AMCAS only. Doing it through the application systems isn't as "reliable" I guess

 

[PapaGuava]

No it's free. The advantage to interfolio is being able to store your letters

This, and uploading letters to AACOMAS from Interfolio will allow your LORs to be sent to all your schools. Each letter uploaded will count as one letter sent from the 50 per year you are allowed to send via the subscription.

 

[DameJulie]

Have you asked if your school gives any coupons/discounts for Interfolio? I know a school that gave out free delivery "coupon codes" before the new Interfolio interface.
I know it's very expensive, but Interfolio is the easiest way for both you and your professors to store the letter w/o trouble.

 

[chappystick393]

Have you asked if your school gives any coupons/discounts for Interfolio? I know a school that gave out free delivery "coupon codes" before the new Interfolio interface.
I know it's very expensive, but Interfolio is the easiest way for both you and your professors to store the letter w/o trouble.

wow that's awesome. I'll look into it but I doubt my school does since we have a health professions office and I'm sure since they're charging for sending letters now they'd want to get paid instead of other services being paid 😕