too many LOR's

[basolateral]

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Does it hurt to send too many LOR's with your primary app? most schools are fine with 3, but my advisor said it was okay to send as many as i can... so i sent 8 (only one of which was not as flattering as the rest). now im starting to think that that was completely unnecessary.

 

[runrunrudolph1]

have you sent them already? Is is possible to remove the one that was not as great as the others?

 

[musicaldna]

Just curious how exactly would you know its not flattering? I have 8 too and have not read a single one yet.

Though I am sending them individually so will only send 5 max to each school.

Some strictly say no more than 3/5...

 

[edfig99]

Does it hurt to send too many LOR's with your primary app? most schools are fine with 3, but my advisor said it was okay to send as many as i can... so i sent 8 (only one of which was not as flattering as the rest). now im starting to think that that was completely unnecessary.

i sooooooo much prefer to read 3 or 4 letters, written by people that know you well, than 8 mediocre letters from people who may or may not and you just happened to get a good grade in a class. With that many letters, it suggests your application can't stand on its own. While people CAN send more letters than the minimum, I usually don't encourage it personally.

 

[basolateral]

Just curious how exactly would you know its not flattering? I have 8 too and have not read a single one yet.

Though I am sending them individually so will only send 5 max to each school.

Some strictly say no more than 3/5...

well I only asked letters from people whom I knew really well, so they were completely open to allowing me to read the letters (I didn't even have to ask).

i sooooooo much prefer to read 3 or 4 letters, written by people that know you well, than 8 mediocre letters from people who may or may not and you just happened to get a good grade in a class. With that many letters, it suggests your application can't stand on its own. While people CAN send more letters than the minimum, I usually don't encourage it personally.

thank you for your feedback; but you see the thing is that though my application may be able to stand on its own, my advisor suggested that having good recommendations from more people may alleviate at least some of the damage my application might suffer from my below-average gpa (c3.37, s3.18).
the numbers are not a good reflection of my academic work (the disparity being caused by an adversity I had to face during my early years as an undergrad); so my advisor and I both hoped that the letters might help med schools see that I am a more motivated, hard-working student than what my gpa would suggest.
But taking into account what you have just said, I am starting to think that 8 letters might not have been such a good idea, despite my gpa...

 

[basolateral]

have you sent them already? Is is possible to remove the one that was not as great as the others?

that did come to my mind, actually. I plan on calling amcas on monday in order to ask whether I can have them omit that one letter (I submitted everything a few weeks ago).