Recommendations a decade after BA

[PhDtoDO]

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I'm reapplying to start med school after I finish my PhD. I think I can just send my recs individually because my med school advisor packet thing is about 8 years too old. Has anyone done this non-traditional application thing and how did you deal with the recommendations?

Thanks

sarah

 

[ernieraisin]

hey sarah,

i, too, am applying to med school after my phd. i finished my phd in 2003 and undergrad in 1996. i dont care what my grades were because i am pretty sure that no one was going to remember after 10 years or so. i called about 20 med schools and asked them specifically the type of LORs i needed. the bottom line is i definitely needed a letter from my advisor and couple of others from my phd program. thankfully, none required from my undergrad. i am also using a service called interfolio. do you know anything about them? basically, you have the letters sent to interfolio directly and they will send out the letters for you. it saves you the frustration of making sure that each of your professors send the letter to 20 different schools. (because you just know that some will get lost in the mail...)

 

[ernieraisin]

hey sarah,

i, too, am applying to med school after my phd. i finished my phd in 2003 and undergrad in 1996. i dont care what my grades were because i am pretty sure that no one was going to remember after 10 years or so. i called about 20 med schools and asked them specifically the type of LORs i needed. the bottom line is i definitely needed a letter from my advisor and couple of others from my phd program. thankfully, none required from my undergrad. i am also using a service called interfolio. do you know anything about them? basically, you have the letters sent to interfolio directly and they will send out the letters for you. it saves you the frustration of making sure that each of your professors send the letter to 20 different schools. (because you just know that some will get lost in the mail...)

 

[ntmed]

I'm reapplying to start med school after I finish my PhD. I think I can just send my recs individually because my med school advisor packet thing is about 8 years too old. Has anyone done this non-traditional application thing and how did you deal with the recommendations?

Thanks

sarah

I also applied after completing a PhD, 10+ years after getting a BS. You can still use the premed committee from your graduate school (or undergraduate school). It might be easier than sending individual letters.

the bottom line is i definitely needed a letter from my advisor and couple of others from my phd program. thankfully, none required from my undergrad.

This may be technically correct. But it would help if you incuded a letter from your undergraduate program (and from any other school you received a degree from). This letter may not be as strong as those from your PhD program, where people currently know you best. But it will corroborate that you had no problems at your undergraduate insitution.

 

[PhDtoDO]

Thanks for the input.

I called my undergraduate and they said I could still use their services but the deadline for the cover letter packet thing is friday. I think I'll call my graduate school tomorrow but what is this interfolio thing? What's their website?

Thanks,

Sarah;-)

 

[PhDtoDO]

Hey,
What's interfolio and do they have a website?

thanks

sarah;-) 😕

 

[RAD11]

Hi Sarah,

I graduated from undergrad in 1999 with a BS in Bio and in 2003 with a MS in Clinical Nutrition. I went back to my undergrad aschool and am working with a pre-med advisor there. When I started this process about a year ago, I contacted the Biology Department and came to realize that there is a new pre-med advisor, whom I have never met since he wasn't there when I graduated. We basically corresponded through e-mail just for me to get an idea of the whole process, until I met with him in person this past April (right after the MCAT). Basically he told me that he has to write a committee letter so I had to submit these forms to my science professors where they basically rank me in terms of academic performance, leadership, etc and also write a short blurb about why I would be a good candidate for medical school.
I e-mailed 5 science professors and met with them in person and talked to them about why I wanted to go to medical school (mind you I haven't seen them in 6 yrs...haven't been back to the college since I graduated). In the mean time, I also got recommendations from other people (from an MD, research faculty advisor, other employer) and submitted other LORs that were given to me over the years (when I applied to grad school, nutrition internship, volunteer). I know it's kind of overkill, but I wanted this pre-med advisor to get a sense of what I am as a student, intern, employee, etc. So in all I think I have about 11 LORs in my file. Anyway I think that paid off cause he just e-mailed me today and said that he can tell from reading all the recommendations, that many people have come to believe that I would be a fine doctor.

I was all ready to sumbit my AMCAS this month up until I got my MCAT score, which I bombed terribly. Anyway, I am preparing to re-take April 2006...but at least I have a peace of mind that my file in school is complete with the exception of my new MCAT score. This is a long grueling process, but I have to be patient because I believe that good things happen to those who wait. Good luck with everything!

 

[ernieraisin]

it is www.interfolio.com
it is a service which will collect all of your LORs and keep them in their file. whenever you want the letters sent out, all you have to do is log on, click on the letter(s) you want and have them sent to the specific address. that way, you can avoid having the individual writers send out their letter to 20 different schools. they only have to send ONE letter to interfolio and you can send out as many as you want (for a fee, of course). med schools will accept letters from interfolio. this is an awesome service if you do not want to have to go through your undergrad premed committee.

i, for one, did not want to go through that route because that meant having to drive up for four hours, sit down for an interview with the undergrad premed advisor, drive back down for another four hours....i just didnt think that a composite letter from someone who doesnt even know me was going to do me any good. i felt that my phd thesis advisor would write me an awesome letter and didnt want it to be diluted at all. hope this helps. at least check out the website!

good luck!