Pre-med advisory for non-trad?

[ladpm]

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I need some clarification...since I've been out of school for awhile, do I have to submit my letters of rec to my undergrad pre-med advisory board just like my currently graduating counterparts? Or is there another way to approach this where I don't have to go through this advisory board? Thanks

 

[packerfan]

I need some clarification...since I've been out of school for awhile, do I have to submit my letters of rec to my undergrad pre-med advisory board just like my currently graduating counterparts? Or is there another way to approach this where I don't have to go through this advisory board? Thanks

Many schools prefer a premed committee letter to individual letters alone.
I went before the committee with only 10 credits at the university -they bent the rule of 26 credits because my bachelor's was 21 years old and that school would not evaluate me. I had a letter from a current faculty member. They also keep your letters confidential and send everything out.

 

[slim06]

My school has a policy of not writing committee letters or sending out individual letters for alumni 5 years after graduation. So I had to give my letter-writers a lot of envelopes. It was a huge pain, but it did get done, with only one mixup. A lot of schools ask you to justify why you're not sending a committee letter.

 

[Scottish Chap]

I need some clarification...since I've been out of school for awhile, do I have to submit my letters of rec to my undergrad pre-med advisory board just like my currently graduating counterparts? Or is there another way to approach this where I don't have to go through this advisory board? Thanks

I don't think it's a big deal. I never had a premed committee and I had been out of school for a few years when I was applying. I just submitted letters from my employer, a doc I had worked with, and a researcher I had worked with. Nobody asked me about it. It may depend on how long you have been out of school. I would check carefully with each medical school you are applying to.
Edit: I also took two missing prereq's the year that I was applying to medical school and I still did not need a premed committee letter.

 

[JimmyG]

Like Scottish Chap said, check with all the schools you are applying to for the answers. Sometimes it depends how long you have been out of school if you need a premed advisory letter or not. I, unfortunately, will have to get one because, although I have been out of school for 4 years (undergrad for 7 years), I had to take 2 pre-reqs this semester and it now qualifies me as being "in school". I now have to get a premed advisory letter from a school that does not know me, except for the 2 classes I took from them.

 

[sweetdoc]

Check with your school. Last June, I have a phone meeting with a pre-med coordinator at my alma mater and we went through the mechanics of the application process. They were very helpful even though our meeting wasn't in person.

Re: letters of recommendation. I had my recommenders send their letters to the pre-med office at my alma mater. They collected all of the letters and sent them to the schools I applied to via an online program called Virtual Evals. If your school doesn't offer this service, you can use an online service called Interfolio, if you don't want to make your recommenders send lots of copies of your letter out.

Hope that helps,
sweetdoc

 

[viostorm]

I need some clarification...since I've been out of school for awhile, do I have to submit my letters of rec to my undergrad pre-med advisory board just like my currently graduating counterparts? Or is there another way to approach this where I don't have to go through this advisory board? Thanks

You don't have to use the premed advisory board. You can submit 3 letters from people of your own choosing with some limitations. Check with AMCAS or TMDSAS.

I actually recommend NOT using the premed advisory board. There is no guarantee they will look favorably and write you a good rec ... I think they are very rough on non-trad premeds.

I was non-traditional and did my pre-reqs at UVA, and their advisor was horrible. One student, already had been admitted to Howard med school, but went in to the advisor with a question. He misunderstood why she was there and actually told her "you don't have the grades, you should apply not to med school" She was like, thanks, but I've already been admitted.

Is that the person you want writing your rec?

My recommendation:

1) Find people who you know will write you a good letter.
2) Talk with them before and ask them bluntly if they will be positive, if they say no, then choose someone else.
3) Give them a resume and tell them what you want to emphasize in your letter ... make it easy for them to say good things about you.

This is your life, do not let someone hired by the university control it who is going to sum up your life in one letter. They will be more unbiased, maybe even putting class rank and averages. What med school wants to take a "middle of the road student". The admissions process is about selling yourself.

As far as a preference for who writes it, med schools prefer good grades and good MCAT ... you are not going to be denied admission because you didn't use the university to write your rec letter.

-Vio

 

[blee]

If you have access to a pre-med committee, it's a good idea to use one if you think you're in good standing. The committee at my post-bacc university assigns a rating to all of their applicants -- highest recommendation, highly recommended, recommended, recommended with reservation, not recommended. The medical school acceptance rates are reflected in the ratings, although that probably has as much to do with the student's grades and MCAT scores as the committee recommendation.

What I like about the system is that it gives med school adcoms another chance to see where you stack up against the competition. It's not an objective standardized test, and it's not just a GPA; it's a combination of demonstrated academic ability and personal character as reflected in your transcripts and LORs.