Too few letters of recommendation?

[LINK1290]

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After much talk within a pre-medical organization of which I am a member of, I was told that adcoms don't want to read much more than about four letters for each applicant. We were discussing Texas public schools, but I didn't expect the AMCAS rules of thumb to be much different. I ended up sending four letters total to both TMDSAS and AMCAS: two from science professors, one from an English professor, and one from a research supervisor.

After some browsing here on SDN, it looks like some people sent as many as eight letters. Will having only four letters look weak?

 

[dbrokut]

No. Not at all. I sent five and besides, most schools only ask for three or four letters.. I haven't yet found a school that requires more than four, although some schools say they'll read up to five letters.

 

[MN premed]

I'm pretty sure that schools don't want you to send that many letters, can you imagine reading 8 for every person?
Also, I applied to TMDSAS, too. You sent 4 letters to them? I thought that their website made it pretty clear that any letters over 2 were unwanted.

It says, "The participating schools prefer to receive only the required evaluation letters. Additional letters are not encouraged. However, TMDSAS will forward one extra letter on your behalf."

I have 2 extra letters that I believe are strong, but I didn't send either of them, because I thought that it would look bad. Thoughts?

 

[LINK1290]

No. Not at all. I sent five and besides, most schools only ask for three or four letters.. I haven't yet found a school that requires more than four, although some schools say they'll read up to five letters.

Great to hear. I was even told that it's not advisable to send the maximum number that schools take. I never understood why some people found it necessary to send a letter from every professor they've had in their undergraduate education, and then some.

 

[NickNaylor]

Adcoms aren't going to seriously read all eight letters. Would you if you had to review 200 applications in a day? Adcoms are people, too.

Four is fine. The number of letters that allows adcoms to see a full evaluation of all of your strengths is the perfect number of letters you need. Somehow I think people get the notion that more letters necessarily = better. I don't think this is the case.

 

[LINK1290]

I'm pretty sure that schools don't want you to send that many letters, can you imagine reading 8 for every person?
Also, I applied to TMDSAS, too. You sent 4 letters to them? I thought that their website made it pretty clear that any letters over 2 were unwanted.

It says, "The participating schools prefer to receive only the required evaluation letters. Additional letters are not encouraged. However, TMDSAS will forward one extra letter on your behalf."

I have 2 extra letters that I believe are strong, but I didn't send either of them, because I thought that it would look bad. Thoughts?

Well, I go to UT Austin, and their committee letter (sent through Interfolio) only counts as one letter. For that reason, I didn't think it was too big of a deal.

 

[LINK1290]

Bumping this thread because I continue to see people who send as many as 6-8 letters. I'm a little concerned because after working on the Stanford secondary, I saw in their instructions that "if you have been significantly involved in a relevant activity for which you do not request a supervisor's or preceptor's letter, the Committee on Admissions is likely to question the value of the experience."

Like I said in my first post, I have letters from two science professors, an English professor, and a research supervisor. I'm waiting on a letter from another research supervisor so that Harvard doesn't complain (they want letters from each research supervisor), but now I guess I'm also sending this fifth letter to Stanford so that they don't "question the value of my experience."

I've already submitted secondaries to a handful of schools, all of which are big research schools. Did I screw up by not sending more letters, particularly one from my other research supervisor? In my defense, he's been out of the country up until quite recently, and I didn't want to delay the processing of my secondaries on his behalf. Then again, schools don't know that.

 

[shemarty]

People who send 8 letters are crazy 😛

 

[LINK1290]

People who send 8 letters are crazy 😛

Haha, I'm glad someone agrees 😀

Do you have any opinions on my situation in particular, though?

 

[JokerMD]

I only have five, and I think this is still one or two too many. I personally feel that it is important to have a letter from a practicing physician who can comment on your character traits, but this letter is far from mandatory. I think the research letter can be important to demonstrate intellectual curiosity or dedication to a project, but the research letter, imho, is the least important one. two science and one nonscience is pretty standard at all schools, but you have these covered already, so you should be fine.

 

[YouToo]

I doubt anyone has the time to accumulate eight strong letters of recommendations. By sending that many, you are just taking the focus off the stronger LORs you have.

 

[musicaldna]

I did send 8 letters to some places but my story is different. I am a grad student so I sent letters from undergrad/grad and department chairs, PIs what not. Hopefully they will understand.

 

[shemarty]

Sending the minimum letters is totally okay, that's why they set a minimum!

My comment isn't as funny because I took my LOR info down from my MDApps profile. I actually did send 8 last year - in retrospect I realize it was overkill, but I know they were strong letters so I guess in the end it didn't really matter.

Anyway, you can always send more letters later if you feel like it would help your application significantly. They may or may not read it depending on how the particular school does things. I doubt one letter will sway your admissions decision either way, though.

Edit: I re-added LOR info to my MDApps.