Pre-Med Committee Letters

[skinnylindsay]

Is my school strange for not having such a committee?

It seems like most med schools prefer a composite letter, including the one attached to my undergraduate institution. It doesn't make sense to me that, knowing this, my school doesn't have one. But I guess, what can you expect when we don't even have a full-time Pre-Health advisor.

All gripes aside, is anyone else going to be spending this summer/fall tracking down enough people to fufill the various recommendation requirements for the schools they're applying to?

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[nick_carraway]

If you're applying for 2008, you don't have all summer to find letter writers. Starting in July, secondaries will start to want recs I think.

 

[skinnylindsay]

Oh, I'm already on it I have 2 science letter writers so far, working on a non-science letter, and plan on speaking with a physician I interned with once I go home later this month. I'm doing a lot of running around this summer.

 

[jochi1543]

My school has a premed committee, but they don't do composite letters. I told one of the members that I'd have to reference their name in regards to this on a few apps, as some schools want a written explanation if you can't get a letter like this.

 

[amartinezz43]

Oh, I'm already on it I have 2 science letter writers so far, working on a non-science letter, and plan on speaking with a physician I interned with once I go home later this month. I'm doing a lot of running around this summer.

good, get them in ASAP!!!!!!!!!

 

[nick_carraway]

Yay! Okay you had me scared for you for a while there.

I'm like you. The LORs at college are easy to get but it's that one from an employer back home that I'm worried about. I won't even be able to get him the packet until July!

 

[adios24]

My school has a committee, but am I correct in assuming that for secondary apps, this committee letter satisfies all LOR requirements? I thought that was the case, but then I was on the UAB School of Medicine site, which said "[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]The secondary application requires letters of evaluation from your pre-professional advisory committee, two personal letters of recommendation, an application fee, and you are required to send a recent passport-sized photograph by .jpg file.", which implies that they require two more letters in addition to the composite complied by the commitee, not either/or.

Are there other schools that do this? If so, I'll be in trouble b/c I pretty much submitted all LORs to my Pre-med committee.
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[FlowLimited]

My school has a committee, but am I correct in assuming that for secondary apps, this committee letter satisfies all LOR requirements? I thought that was the case, but then I was on the UAB School of Medicine site, which said "[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]The secondary application requires letters of evaluation from your pre-professional advisory committee, two personal letters of recommendation, an application fee, and you are required to send a recent passport-sized photograph by .jpg file.", which implies that they require two more letters in addition to the composite complied by the commitee, not either/or.

Are there other schools that do this? If so, I'll be in trouble b/c I pretty much submitted all LORs to my Pre-med committee.
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You should probably check with each school to see what their requirements are in terms of LORs. I think that most schools are satisfied with the composite letter but occasionally they'll want an extra letter or two.

At my school, our pre-health advisor had us get one science and one non-science letter to be sent in addition to the composite letter. I guess now I know why.

 

[nick_carraway]

My school has a committee, but am I correct in assuming that for secondary apps, this committee letter satisfies all LOR requirements?<snip>

Are there other schools that do this? If so, I'll be in trouble b/c I pretty much submitted all LORs to my Pre-med committee.

Doesn't that mean that they want your committee's letter and two letters of rec which can be included in your committee's packet? My committee writes their own letter about me and then includes letters of rec that I give them in support of their cover letter. So that'd be 1 committee letter + at least 2 letters of rec which should meet that school's requirements. Is your school's committee different?

 

[FlowLimited]

Doesn't that mean that they want your committee's letter and two letters of rec which can be included in your committee's packet? My committee writes their own letter about me and then includes letters of rec that I give them in support of their cover letter. So that'd be 1 committee letter + at least 2 letters of rec which should meet that school's requirements. Is your school's committee different?

This is exactly what my school does.

 

[adios24]

Doesn't that mean that they want your committee's letter and two letters of rec which can be included in your committee's packet? My committee writes their own letter about me and then includes letters of rec that I give them in support of their cover letter. So that'd be 1 committee letter + at least 2 letters of rec which should meet that school's requirements. Is your school's committee different?

Yes, that's what my school does too. Ok, phew... I was starting to panic for a minute.

 

[maestro1625]

of course if you go to the Michigans and UCLAs of the world do you really want a committee letter demanded of you? It's a much more reasonable expectation to send out letters from people who actually know you.

 

[nick_carraway]

Well that's what the LORs are for. The committee letter rates you relative to your institution and comments on your courses, outstanding circumstances, institutional action or awards. It's supposed to serve as a less one-sided view of an applicant since we all know that all of our letter writers practically think we can walk on water...

 

[maestro1625]

Well that's what the LORs are for. The committee letter rates you relative to your institution and comments on your courses, outstanding circumstances, institutional action or awards. It's supposed to serve as a less one-sided view of an applicant since we all know that all of our letter writers practically think we can walk on water...

hmm, I guess I just come from a small school mentality where about half the committee already knew who I was coming in. Without that knowledge, the "letter" is little more than a spreadsheet.

though I brought up Michigan because here in AA, they apparently don't have a committee letter, yet people never bring it up as an issue.