Recommendation letters after a few years out of school

[revbro123]

Hi all. I'm a reapplicant for this cycle, and have since graduated from undergrad. So I've been out of school for about 3 years now. I applied once to medical schools in 2010 (Intending to enter as class of 2011), and didn't get in because I couldn't manage to graduate that year, among other things perhaps.
I'm wonder how procedure should go in regards to the old committee letter that was submitted for my old application cycle. It's been many years, but at the time, my committee letter was rated as a strong recommendation. Now, I do have several other more recent LOR's, but I was wondering if I should include that old committee letter. If its good, even if its old, could it hurt to include?

For reference, I have 4 other reasonably good LOR's from volunteering/employers in the last 2 years. I'm worried about the fact that many schools want letters from science faculty / other faculty. Since I've been out of school for so long, I haven't really been in touch with faculty associated with any Universities. Are my employment / volunteering LOR's good enough at all?

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[2Pints]

I would call the school's directly and ask their preference. I was really worried about not being able to get quality LORs from professors since it had been 7 years after graduating. One school explained that there is a shift towards having LORs that can attest to certain traits instead of fitting into science, non-science, etc. categories. I don't know about using the old committee letter, have you talked to the pre-med advising office to see if they could re-write it to include more recent endeavors?

 

[Quizlet04]

Some committees will not write for people outside of a certain time frame after graduating, meaning you'd be submitting a non-approved committee letter unless your school makes an exception. No school I have heard about will accept zero faculty letters, though some may offer a little wriggle room. What you need to do is write your professors and see if any remember you.

 

[akinetopsia]

Worst case scenario, some secondaries ask for an explanation if your school produces a committee letter and you don't have one. If your school is unwilling to provide/update a committee letter, then that should be a sufficient reason as to "why I don't have a committee letter" when they are used to seeing one from that institution. Good luck!