Pre-Med Committee Letters

[CoverMe]

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While procrastinating my studying, I read through some of the latest posts and I find that the "Pre-Med Committee Letter" is an issue (still an issue) for many many applicants. Many undergraduate schools have a Pre-Med Committee, and many med schools "require" a letter from the committee, if your school offers one.

That being said, my undergraduate institution (UNLV) has a committee, and the committee has a horrible reputation. I chose not to subject myself to their interview, their letter, their schedule, or their opinions. I had great LORs from people who knew me well, and I was disinclined to have those recommendations watered-down or negated by 5 strangers and a 20 minute interview. One of my letter-writers was a member of the committee, and agreed with my choice to not interview with them.

The purpose of this post is to try to develop a list of schools who have accepted students w/o a committee letter, when the student could have gotten one from their undergraduate school... is the "requirement" really a requirement. I think it's important to give the students who follow us an option, so that they do not feel railroaded into the dreaded committee if it isn't necessary.

I'll start the list:

Touro CA and Touro NV

 

[HunterGatherer]

schools that will accept 2 LORs from science professors instead of a committee leter:

NYCOM
LECOM
UMDNJ
UNECOM

schools that will take a LOR from your academic advisor instead of a committee letter:
PCOM

Those are the only schools I looked into.


People might say that you will get questioned for not using your premed committee if your school has one. I think it should be up to which way you will feel most comfortable.

 

[DarkWingDuck]

People might say that you will get questioned for not using your premed committee if your school has one. I think it should be up to which way you will feel most comfortable.[/QUOTE]

I had 2 interviews with my committee, the second one being the worst interview of my life. Talk about being grilled. But, after that horrible second interview, none of the real interviews (4 of them)were even close in intensity to the committee's. I must admit, I was seriously pissed at them, but I do think it helped me.

 

[FrkyBgStok]

according to their website DMU will accept 2 letters from professors instead as well.

 

[CoverMe]

It's sounding like the pre-med committee letter is less a requirement than some pre-med committees would like you undergrads to believe.

An excellent point was made by DarkWing... the committee interview may be helpful for applicants who have not had much interview experience (although, I can think of better ways to get the experience, without having my future hang on the outcome!!!).

Interfolio (I wish I had used them, keeping my letter writers and letters organized as the secondaries piled in was a hassle and a half) sounds like an excellent alternative.

Just be prepared to have a reason why you didn't go through your pre-med committee (prior negative experience with a committee member, horror stories, scheduling conflicts, etc).

Thanks for the feedback, everyone!

 

[DrHate]

From what I understand, the benefit of having a committee is because some people are non-traditional, been out of school for a long time, or taken a year or 2 off, that's 6 yrs, most of science professor may not know them after that many years ... The committee will write a letter of recommendation, will keep the files, re-use it for the next year if you won't get in.

At least that was one of the professor who is in the committee at my school told me.

But yeah, if you can get 2 *kick butt* LORs from 2 science professor, more power to you.

 

[CoverMe]

Dr.Hate... true, but most of the people who would even KNOW about the pre-med committee are people who are doing things a bit more traditionally. I'm non-trad, but i went back to school for the pre-reqs and got the LORs.

I guess part of my problem with the whole pre-med committee is that it has become more of a hinderance than a help... another potential stumbling block. In my experience (UNLV) they made a point of only recommending students with great stats... because they knew those students were going to be accepted (I have this one from the horses' mouth, so to speak)... so the committee could advertize that a high percentage of people they recommended were accepted. So, by screwing with the stats, it looks like their recommendation was the thing that helped students gain admission.

I actually don't get the "point" of a pre-med committee... why would an undergrad institution have one... what's "in it" per se, for the undergrad institution?

Anyway... the point of this thread was to encourage students to take the path that is going to do THEM the most good. If they can get letters and have a reason not to go thru the premed committee, then they have the option not to.

By talking to other non-trad students, I made the decision that there was a high likelihood of my excellent LORs being watered down by UNLV's committee... so I decided not to bother (and was successful in so doing)... I don't want people to get railroaded into doing something that is not in their best interests.