daveswafford,
Let me first commend you on your dedication on getting the stuff that you need to get done in a timely manner... I am already impressed by your initiative and I am sure your initiative will shine through your app and into your interviews!
Anyways, here is my opinion on your situation... I am not sure what undergraduate school you went to but hopefully you have access to an advising office that offers a service that will hold your letters of recommendation for you and send them to the schools of your choice upon your request. I went to UC Davis and our Health Science Advising Office runs the PHPAC service (Pre Health Professions Advisory Committee) For $175 they will hold all your letters of rec and submit them to up to 20 schools at your request. Before submitting your letters you must be interviewed by a person that will read your primary application and letters, and from this will write an additional letter of recommendation that will basically be the cover of the set of letters that are sent to the schools of your choosing. Furthermore, you are given the choice of having either an "open" or "closed" file, referring to whether or not you have access to the letters of rec in your file. Most schools prefer that you have a closed file for this assumes that the opinions of your letter writers are true and unbiased since the possibility of you reading the letter personally is eliminated.
With respect to having specific letter writers write to specific schools, thats a tough one... I just wrote a paragraph about how you should have all your letters sent to this service which will send out your letters for you, so doesn't that eliminate the possibility of sending alumni specific letters of rec?? Here is what I did... I asked if my letter writer would be willing to write two letters, one that was directed to his alma mater and stated his affiliation, and one that was more general that i could have put in my PHPAC file... oh the hoops we jump through to get into school!!
Regarding how many letter you should have, I attended a conference at Western this weekend and the director of admissions was asked the same question and in response she said, "Be reasonable" referring to the fact that when your application is reviewed before the admissions commitee, your letters of rec are read outloud, so having too many could easily become trite. Touro requires that "Applicants are required to submit one letter of recommendation from a D.O. (a letter from an M.D. may be used to fulfill this requirement) together with either a pre-professional committee letter OR two letters from basic science faculty. Original letters or copies of original letters mailed directly to TUCOM by the author and/or Pre-Professional Committee are acceptable." and Western's requirement is "to submit letters of recommendation from a Pre-Health Professions Committee (or the committee on your campus responsible for writing recommendations) and one physician. If such a committee does not exist at your college you are required to submit two evaluations from science professors (i.e., biology, chemistry, physics), one evaluation from a non-science professor and one evaluation from a physician.
The science/non-science letters must be from professors who have instructed you and the recommender should specify the course(s). All recommendations must be on the Western University form provided or on college or professional letterhead."
Hope this helps!
Email me or post more questions as they come up!!
Brian Enriquez
[email protected]
