Oh no :( question regarding committee letter

[HurricaneAlana]

Ok... so I decided this past semester to go to dental school (applying now, 08 cycle)... I knew that a committee letter was preferred, but I had no idea my school had one. I have no friends who are pre-med/dental/health so haven't heard of it, and when I did a search on my university's website there was no mention of one.. I just found out today there is one that provides committee letters... I already have 4 professors, and almost definitely a 5th, and a dentist writing LORs, some have already been submitted to AADSAS... do you think that submitting LORs will be detrimental to my application if an adcom knows that my school does have this service?

thanks, Alana

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[reapply2007]

Usually you have the option of a committee letter or the pile of letters from science profs and others. Most committees don't write the LOR until late into the summer and even then they don't know any of the pre-med/dent students well enough to make a strong LOR. If this is the case at your school you may be better off going with the short stack of LORs, especially if the profs have already agreed to writing them. Your application should be complete earlier than with the committee letter. As an option, you could always go to the committee and ask for a LOR, after you've submitted everything else.

 

[djeffreyt]

Depends...

Call the schools and explain or send them a letter explaining. This is my suggestion. 3 years ago a girl from my school applied to her top choice school without a committee letter. She knew it was available but chose not to follow the guidelines in order to get the letter, thinking that either way was fine.

She visited the school before applying and while there found out that the school "greatly preferred if she got a committee letter" because that was what they were used to from that school

She scrambled and got requirements done and got a committee letter and was accepted. Although either SHOULD be allowed, you never know how the school will react. But if you honestly didn't know about it, maybe the schools will let you slide, but i would explain, just as a precaution.