Will late LOR hold up my application?

[RollSkins]

So, here is my dilema. I plan on submitting AMCAS at the begining of June, take the MCAT on June 15, receive my MCAT scores in mid July and I will try to submit secondaries as timely as possible. My question is will schools look at my secondaries without my LOR's. The problem is that the pre-med committee at my school dosen't meet until October (I will have my personal LORs in by at least August). I was wondering if this is going to hold up my application and put me at a disadvantage? Thanks for any advice.

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[MonkeyNuts!]

If your file is NOT complete at a given school, they will not review it. And yes, it may put you at a disadvantage.

Are you sure your pre-med committee doesn't meet till October??? That sounds pretty late to me...

 

[tdd340]

Yea Oct. is way late for your commitee to meet. My school doesn't have a commitee and I submitted individual letters and was complete in Oct. and I definetly feel it put me at a disadvantage. I would consider sending individual letters via interfolio as early as possible and then possibly updating with the commitee letter later if your school doesn't meet until that late.

 

[KaraKiz]

Yea Oct. is way late for your commitee to meet. My school doesn't have a commitee and I submitted individual letters and was complete in Oct. and I definetly feel it put me at a disadvantage. I would consider sending individual letters via interfolio as early as possible and then possibly updating with the commitee letter later if your school doesn't meet until that late.

I agree. my committee got my letters out in late october, but i was complete on everything else in August. anyway, I think I would have done better this cycle if my app was complete earlier. Oct is def way too late to get letters out.

 

[cleothecat]

Suggest privately to the Cttee that their scheduling puts their students at a severe disadvantage for med skules which are on rolling admissions.

They should really be meeting in July!

 

[HumbleMD]

Can they meet now before the term's end? If there is no possible way for them to meet on your application before October I would highly recommend pursuing individual recommendation letters (2 science, 1 non-science). By mid October some applicants will already have multiple interviews and an acceptance or two.

 

[gotmeds?]

I was in the same situation. Don't worry. Just make sure that your individual letters get sent before the committee letter. Every school I applied to considered my application complete at that point. All the status pages that displayed the information said, "comittee letter received" or "packet received," even though the actual committee letter didn't get sent in until early November (and I had already gotten interview invites by then).

 

[RollSkins]

Can they meet now before the term's end? If there is no possible way for them to meet on your application before October I would highly recommend pursuing individual recommendation letters (2 science, 1 non-science). By mid October some applicants will already have multiple interviews and an acceptance or two.

I definitely think that I am going to just send personal letters and then update them with the committee letter later. I know its ridiculuos that they don't meet until october. I have asked about it and they said its because they have several teachers who go and teach at other universites during the summer months. Anyway is the 2 science 1 non-science the standard of what letters I should be sending to schools or is it just different for every school? If so how can I find out what they require? Also when would be considered "early" to have everything in (I'm thinking August, but I'm not sure)?

 

[HumbleMD]

I definitely think that I am going to just send personal letters and then update them with the committee letter later. I know its ridiculuos that they don't meet until october. I have asked about it and they said its because they have several teachers who go and teach at other universites during the summer months. Anyway is the 2 science 1 non-science the standard of what letters I should be sending to schools or is it just different for every school? If so how can I find out what they require?

A few random schools require less, but but this combo will cover all of your bases (at least it did for me). I also included a letter from an M.D. friend of mine who I've worked with in Mexico, but I beliebe a 4th letter is almost entirely optional. You can check the schools you're thinking of applying to for exactl requirements, but I'm almost positive that 2 science and 1 non-science will do it.

 

[RollSkins]

A few random schools require less, but but this combo will cover all of your bases (at least it did for me). I also included a letter from an M.D. friend of mine who I've worked with in Mexico, but I beliebe a 4th letter is almost entirely optional. You can check the schools you're thinking of applying to for exactl requirements, but I'm almost positive that 2 science and 1 non-science will do it.

Thanks so much. As far as the non-science that means non-science teacher right and not just anyone?

 

[HumbleMD]

Thanks so much. As far as the non-science that means non-science teacher right and not just anyone?

Correct. Usually humanities, English, etc. You'll want to get on these as soon as you can, and tell them you need the letter by June 1st (to give them a whole month of tardiness).

 

[gotmeds?]

Non-science doesn't always have to be a teacher. It can be an employer or PI for a research project. Most (but not all) schools will accept this. I had 2 letters from science faculty and one from a doctor I worked for and all but one of the schools I applied to accepted it.

 

[Disinence2]

So, here is my dilema. I plan on submitting AMCAS at the begining of June, take the MCAT on June 15, receive my MCAT scores in mid July and I will try to submit secondaries as timely as possible. My question is will schools look at my secondaries without my LOR's. The problem is that the pre-med committee at my school dosen't meet until October (I will have my personal LORs in by at least August). I was wondering if this is going to hold up my application and put me at a disadvantage? Thanks for any advice.

Yes

 

[HumbleMD]

Non-science doesn't always have to be a teacher. It can be an employer or PI for a research project. Most (but not all) schools will accept this. I had 2 letters from science faculty and one from a doctor I worked for and all but one of the schools I applied to accepted it.

Most of my schools explicityly required a professor who gave me a grade in a non-science subject area. My P.I. wrote a letter, counting as a science professor, because I did the reearch for credit and received a grade my sophomore year. To be safe, I'd stick to the 2 science professors (who assigned you a grade) and a non-science (who also assigned you a grade in a non-science class). If one does do appreciable (more than a semester) research it's pretty much understood that they will be writing you a letter, otherwise a school might wonder why they didn't (something to hide?). Some schools have a hard maximum at 4 letters, but some my allow more, but the core of 2+1 should get you past the requirements (as your committee letter might be considered supplementry anyway).

 

[epigastric]

I definitely think that I am going to just send personal letters and then update them with the committee letter later. I know its ridiculuos that they don't meet until october. I have asked about it and they said its because they have several teachers who go and teach at other universites during the summer months. Anyway is the 2 science 1 non-science the standard of what letters I should be sending to schools or is it just different for every school? If so how can I find out what they require? Also when would be considered "early" to have everything in (I'm thinking August, but I'm not sure)?

Super-efficient (and nearly impossible): June
Early: July
Average: August
Late enough to be an issue: September
Problematically late (will hurt, unless you're a superstar): October or later

 

[foofish]

I definitely think that I am going to just send personal letters and then update them with the committee letter later. I know its ridiculuos that they don't meet until october. I have asked about it and they said its because they have several teachers who go and teach at other universites during the summer months. Anyway is the 2 science 1 non-science the standard of what letters I should be sending to schools or is it just different for every school? If so how can I find out what they require? Also when would be considered "early" to have everything in (I'm thinking August, but I'm not sure)?

Wow...my first thought was, were you supposed to have your letter written by them the October *before* applying? It's amazing (yet also not entirely surprising) that schools would willfully put their students at such a disadvantage.

Anyway, I'd give a to your plan. If possible, when submitting your secondary I'd try to explain the situation (that you are having a committee letter written, but that they don't meet until October), since at some colleges it can seem a little fishy if you don't have a committee letter. (E.g. for my postbac program we had to qualify for it, so it was also an endorsement and class-wide comparison.) If you have a school in particular that you're really interested in, you might want to run your plan by them.

As for August, my committee letter didn't get out until mid-August (and I thought *that* was late!) but I was fine. That said, I had all of my secondaries submitted so the LOR was the only missing piece to complete my file.

 

[RollSkins]

Non-science doesn't always have to be a teacher. It can be an employer or PI for a research project. Most (but not all) schools will accept this. I had 2 letters from science faculty and one from a doctor I worked for and all but one of the schools I applied to accepted it.

I am set as far as the science letters go (I have been kissing but for a while now). But I might be SOL with the non-science letter. I don't really know any non-science teachers. I mean I have obviously taken non science classes but it has been a while (over 1 yr) and I never had more than one class from a non-science teacher. To tell you the truth I doubt any of them even know my name. As far as the employer goes can it be any employer (such as construction work) or would it have to be something medically or research related? Also I was considering asking this MD, who I have spent alot of time shadowing, to writing one but I don't know what category this would fall under.

 

[gotmeds?]

I am set as far as the science letters go (I have been kissing but for a while now). But I might be SOL with the non-science letter. I don't really know any non-science teachers. I mean I have obviously taken non science classes but it has been a while (over 1 yr) and I never had more than one class from a non-science teacher. To tell you the truth I doubt any of them even know my name. As far as the employer goes can it be any employer (such as construction work) or would it have to be something medically or research related? Also I was considering asking this MD, who I have spent alot of time shadowing, to writing one but I don't know what category this would fall under.

The safest route is to get a non-science teacher to write it, but if that's not really a good option, I'd ask the MD. I applied to something like 24 schools and only one (UIC) asked me to send in a non-science faculty letter instead of the MD letter. Someone who knows you is also more likely to write a good letter. But if you have your heart set on a specific school, then check with them to make sure it's ok.

 

[AtreyuRocks]

The safest route is to get a non-science teacher to write it, but if that's not really a good option, I'd ask the MD. I applied to something like 24 schools and only one (UIC) asked me to send in a non-science faculty letter instead of the MD letter. Someone who knows you is also more likely to write a good letter. But if you have your heart set on a specific school, then check with them to make sure it's ok.

yea, safe is good. but at the same time many schools are not that HARD on their LOR Req's.

I had two science faculty and one MD letter. I refused to add a non-science prof because I didn't want a mediocre (random) letter to "ruin" my packet of great (so I think) LORs (my three LORs were all from people I developed relationships with for 4 years or more). I think this was a good move on my part.

If you are hell bent on a particular school (I had some free-time), call them up and ask how HARD the requirements are. In addition, if you write a letter to adcoms stating your reason(s) for not having X letter, it is generally OK. And yes, schools still REVIEWED my app (they didn't just steal my money) cause I rec'd interview invites.

EDIT: yea I think I had the same problem with UIC (non-science academic req), but I applied to so many schools, I never bothered to check with them, and gave up on the app, saved me secondary money .

 

[RollSkins]

Yeah I think I will go with the MD because the non-science route would definetly mean that I would have a subpar letter, I guess the construction employer would probably be a no go (its not exactly the most intellectually stimulating job although you'd be suprised how many people could tell you all about the inner working of the cell but could not build a wall but thats really neither here nor there). Also do you all think that intefolio is worth it?

 

[mongrel]

Yeah I think I will go with the MD because the non-science route would definetly mean that I would have a subpar letter. Do you all think that intefolio is worth it?

I'd also like to know about Interfolio. And would someone explain exactly how their service works? Thanks

 

[mongrel]

I'd also like to know about Interfolio. And would someone explain exactly how their service works? Thanks

Sorry, scratch that. I lifted up my lazy index finder and read their website myself. I'd still be interested in hearing SDN users' opinions of the Interfolio service.

 

[jojo_1981]

I used Interfolio to add a few supplemental letters to my app. that came in after my school's committee letter had already been submitted, and I had no problems at all with the service. I've heard horror stories on SDN of things going wrong (as there are horror stories on here for just about ANYTHING going wrong - ususally its the extreme minority), but for the most part, its pretty easy to use and quick, especially if you opt to do electronic submission of the letters.

The process of submitting via interfolio for the recommender may be a little complex, so make sure you read up on it on the site and give them detailed instructions.

The 2 science, 1 non-science requirement is pretty standard, as people have already said. I would also be sure to ask any PIs you've worked with for recs, if you've done any research. Some schools (read: Harvard) want a letter from anyone you've ever done research with. Also, people who can write about any major ECs on your application are always helpful.

A little anecdotal bit: I was a non-trad and non-science major, and I did not have the 2 science, 1 non-science requirement exactly (1 PI, 1 science prof. who was actually my non-science BA advisor, and 1 volunteer supervisor), but my Pre-med committee letter did the trick for every school I applied to. Its a moot point for you, as you're going to fly solo for your initial letters, but I just thought it might be worthwhile for others to know that the 2-1 ratio is not a hard and fast rule.

 

[mongrel]

Thanks for the input. Actually, I just exhausted my other index finger with a search of the SDN forums (!) For anyone else who was interested, this thread pretty much says it all:

Interfolio??

 

[Falco2525]

yeah you might want to just get LOR sent in individually via Interfolio and avoid the committee mess...that sux...try and see if you can get it done now otherwise go around it