Submitting More than 1 Recommendation letter

[SweetOrchid]

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Hi!

My question is regarding the submission of recommendation letters through PharmCAS. Different schools require different numbers of recommendation letters. Let's say I send in 3 letters because one particular school requires 3, but another school needs only 2 letters of recommendation. However, the latter school will see all 3 letters of recommendation. Which letters will the latter school look at? Is there a general process the schools follow to select which letters to read?

 

[sungieality]

Hi!

My question is regarding the submission of recommendation letters through PharmCAS. Different schools require different numbers of recommendation letters. Let's say I send in 3 letters because one particular school requires 3, but another school needs only 2 letters of recommendation. However, the latter school will see all 3 letters of recommendation. Which letters will the latter school look at? Is there a general process the schools follow to select which letters to read?

I've read (on this forum), that Pharmcas will forward all your LORs, but for the schools that only require say 2, while you have 3 letters, will randomly pick 2 of the three to read. I can't be certain that that's the case for every school though. It might be in your best interest to contact the admissions office for their actual procedure.

 

[avuong]

Make sure sending 3 is okay for the 2 school. UIC for a fact will automatically reject you if they receive more than 2 letters of recommendation. Dont think youre doing them a favor, more is not better.

In your situation, you have to decide which school do you want to risk a rejection from, the 3 or the 2?
I personally sent in 2 because my top choice required exactly 2. Of two schools who required 3, one of them rejected me (due to missing 3rd LOR/incomplete application), and the other accepted me despite a missing LOR. Interestingly the one who accepted was a top 5 btw, and the other one who rejected me was a pre-candidate.

Just because they are a pre-candidate doesnt mean theyll let you off easy.

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I agree with above post, the best way is to call your schools and ask if its okay to send 3 LORs. Do not say "I was wondering if it's okay for me to submit 3 LORs to you since Im also applying to XX and they require 3 while you only require 2"

How would you feel if a friend gave you a call and asked, "Is it okay that I bring an extra keg to party you're organizing, but dont worry its not for your party, Im also going to another friend's party afterwards and they are a higher priority"

You dont need to mention any other schools when you call.
Simply call the school and ask "whats your LOR policy," and theyll respond You will need 2. Then you respond, is it okay for me to send in 3? They will then say one of three things:

• "yes its okay, no big deal we'll read them all", or

• "yeah its okay, but we'll just randomly pick two out of the three",

or worst of all

• "NO it is not okay to send 3. We explicitly ask for 2 LORs, FOLLOW DIRECTIONS, if you send in any more or any less, you will be automatically rejected."

So, just give them a call and make sure 3 is okay. I suspect most schools follow the randomly read 2 policy, but who knows.

 

[iamjess]

I actually just got off the phone with UIC admissions for this same question and they said they USED to reject if more than two LOR's were sent. Now since PharmCAS allows you to put three or four in the system for different school requirements, UIC looks at however many you send in and pulls out the 2 recommenders that they require. Has anyone else called them recently? If someone wants to double check me and make sure i didn't misunderstand that would be awesome.

 

[iamjess]

Does anyone know if your LOR's have to be in the pharmcas system before submitting? I am guessing yes, but I want to make sure. I just wasn't sure if PharmCAs updates your profile for those like they do for the PCAT scores and academic update. thx

 

[Monalyce]

Does anyone know if your LOR's have to be in the pharmcas system before submitting? I am guessing yes, but I want to make sure. I just wasn't sure if PharmCAs updates your profile for those like they do for the PCAT scores and academic update. thx

No, they don't have to be in to submit. You can just keep checking the status after you submit, they will update it for you.

Because different schools require different letter writers (one may require a PharmD letter, for instance) I ended up with 4 LOR's on PharmCAS. When I asked several schools how they would know which were "meant" for them, I didn't get any straight answers, and was advised that they may just read them all. Just make sure any and every letter on there is of quality!

 

[255942]

No, they don't have to be in to submit. You can just keep checking the status after you submit, they will update it for you.

Because different schools require different letter writers (one may require a PharmD letter, for instance) I ended up with 4 LOR's on PharmCAS. When I asked several schools how they would know which were "meant" for them, I didn't get any straight answers, and was advised that they may just read them all. Just make sure any and every letter on there is of quality!

This is correct - we read 'em all.

 

[216168]

I actually just got off the phone with UIC admissions for this same question and they said they USED to reject if more than two LOR's were sent. Now since PharmCAS allows you to put three or four in the system for different school requirements, UIC looks at however many you send in and pulls out the 2 recommenders that they require. Has anyone else called them recently? If someone wants to double check me and make sure i didn't misunderstand that would be awesome.

You are understanding correctly. I submitted 3 LORs to pharmCAS and got into UIC without a problem from them about the extra letter.