<p>I think the answer is that by sending to Interfolio you have the option to send either through AMCAS or not (if the school doesn’t use AMCAS for LOR’s). In my son’s case he is getting an LOR from the premed advisor but also several others which are not directly attached. He has two degrees with one not being in science so he has gotten a letter from his non-science advisor and is getting one from his PI. In addition, he has a stand-alone science professor letter which he plans to use. None of those are attached to the premed advisors review. As an aside, the first time he applied he went with stand alone letters and no letter from the premed committee. Obviously it didn’t work out.</p>
<p>Thanks for the elaboration. Now I am convinced that Interfolio is useful. I just need to collect some “ammunition” to convince DS that this service may be of use to him. Somehow, his idea of applying to medical schools is very simplistic: do the primary applications to TMDSAS and AMCAS online, turn in whatever are required by his premed committee, and fill out some secondaries online and then hopefully get an invite or two. Somehow he does not feel like applying to too many OOS schools. (The reason: he does not want to do too many secondaries. His definition of “too many OOS schools” is likely >5.) After being asked what if he does not get into any? His answer: I can always apply again the next year and do something interesting in the mean time.</p>
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<p>This deserves to be emphasized. If your undergrad has a Premed Committee, the Committee Letter is a MUST. Not requesting one sends a big red flag to adcoms which consider the lack of such a letter a major weakness. I know of a certain case where the medical school contacted to undergrad institution and asked if the applicant had been “denied” a Committee Letter or the possible reasons why he did not have one.</p>
<p>^ Yeah, med schools know which schools have a committee that writes letters, and typically won’t accept anything else from students from those schools.</p>
<p>Okay, blonde dense moment here. </p>
<p>If school writes a committee letter, do you still need individual LOR’s? </p>
<p>Wow, thank goodness D still has one more year till application, cuz it will take that long for me to figure this all out!</p>
<p>MCAT2- depending on your state and on his scores etc, he may not need to apply to that many. In many ways all of DDs efforts were a huge wasted expense and waste of time, UW was her #1 choice and she got in early. BUT, who would have thought one application was a smart move in June!?!</p>
<p>As long as he has a plan for filling his time should he need to reapply, then a small application group could be fine or could be a worthwhile risk for the right person.</p>
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My understanding is that you ask the instructors to send their LORs to the committee, which summarizes in the committee letter what your instructors write for you. Medical schools are happy if they receive the committee letter, which I heard is a part of the packet that the committee sends.</p>
<p>I do not know what the packet includes though (maybe includes the transcript also? Not very sure here, because DS needs to go to his college’s registrar to request the transcript be sent to TMDSAS and AMCAS also.)</p>
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<p>Each school may have slightly different requirements concerning the Committee Letter. At my school, we need to fulfill very specific criteria - preparing a CV, writing a personal statement, meeting with several advisors and attending an interview with members of the committee. In addition, we have to submit three letters (no more), two of which must be from professors (one science and the other non- science). Then, they write the Committee Letter and also include the individual letters as part of a Letter Packet.</p>
<p>I believe ALL Committees will require individual LORs (based on their specific criteria), in order for them to write the Committee Letter.</p>
<p>Myopinion, for the committee letter, DS had to write a personal statement and supply a resume but he did not meet with either of the two advisors. He did not need to supply them with any separate references which is why we believe the letter will be fairly weak. One advisor was an instructor in three of his courses and the other he had never met. Even though the second one was supposed to be his assigned advisor due to his last name the first is actually doing the evaluation (at DS’ request).</p>
<p>The first time around he did not get a reference from the committee mostly because he didn’t understand why he should since he felt that others knew him better. Again, I don’t recommend that approach.</p>
<p>So I just found out that DS’ premed committee isn’t really a committee but rather a premed advisor. Not really sure if there is a difference in terms of how medical schools see them. Regardless, the LOR didn’t come from that professor the last time and one of the LOR’s will be from them this time.</p>
<p>sharonohio, I do not know the difference between a committee and a premed advisor. But here I repost what norcalguy posted on #95 on this thread for its relevance:</p>
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<p>So not all faculty/staff from the college are equal in terms of medical schools see them.</p>
<p>Is it likely that a premed advisor who is not a committee member is regarded as a “counselor,” just like a high school counselor during the college application cycle? (That is, although a high school counselor turns in some form for the student, but the student still needs LORs from his teachers who actually teach him.) If this is the case, he may still need to ask 3 instructors to write him LORs.</p>
<p>A related question: an instructor (who may still be a full or associate professor, not a TA who is often a graduate student) is always assigned to “teach” a lab at DS’s school. (He actually teaches and gives quizzes before most labs.) Can you ask such an instructor to write a LOR? Or, the instructor needs to be one who teaches your lecture class? At DS’s college, a lab class is usually worth only 1/2 of a credit while a lecture class is worth a full credit. (But more often than not, the lab gives most students more pains 
Sometimes I feel that there may be more science majors or premeds if there are not so many lab requirements.)</p>
<p>Actually, it is quite possible that a lab instructor may know the student better than a lecture-class instructor.</p>
<p>^^I’d like to know too. I think D1 is having her physics lab instructor do her LOR, but it’s been a touchy subject and she’s the one talking to premed advisors and should know if it’s OK.</p>
<p>Some schools have fairly well structured and organized health careers offices, with multiple advisors and officers. They have scheduled regular meetings to advise their premeds about application deadlines, requirements, credentialing, etc. They constitute a Committee. Other schools just have one premed advisor or counselor (just like the high school counselor during the college application cycle…) In either case, these people are responsible for writing the “Committee Letter” and again - if you school has either of these entities, you MUST request a recommendation letter as part of your application.</p>
<p>Thanks for the caution about the premed advisor and requiring letters from instructors. The good news is that the premed advisor actually taught DS in 3 different courses. The bad news is that she seems to be slow, make that very slow in doing LOR’s. DS’ girlfriend requested an LOR from her in March and is still waiting for hers. Hopefully we can all push her along a bit.</p>
<p>sorry, somehow it posted a duplicate</p>
<p>entomom: This is what LizzyM at SDN wrote about LORs being written by lab instructors in 2008:
“Most of your LOR should be from faculty who have taught you in the lab and /or classroom.” As a SDN “celebrity,” she may be right on this. Now, I feel it is kind of lame for me to raise a question and then answer it by myself (with the help from an authority from the other premed site though.)</p>
<p>Ha, that’s OK, many times I feel like I both ask and answer with my kids ;). Anyway, I’m always big on ‘considering the source’ and I know that LizzyM is a big wig on SDN even though I’ve only tiptoed on that site briefly so far and will likely delay it even longer if D1 continues to lolly-gag along her way to gainful employment.</p>
<p>So first secondary application has been received. It’s somewhat interesting because the AMCAS web site says they’re not transmitting to colleges until next week but obviously that is not true. Still no progress on the last two LOR’s. The PI is tied up with submitting grants (and has been for the past month) so very difficult to get anything out of him (especially since he snaps at everyone in sight prior to the grant applications going out the door). DS is hoping to be able to talk to him when he’s somewhat calm later this week. The premed advisor is still not completing references. I looked at all the schools that DS is applying to in detail. Not having references will hold up several of the primary applications but for the most part the LOR’s just need to be there when the secondaries are turned around. I figure we have about 2 weeks since that’s how long it will probably be before DS gets the first LOR turned around.</p>
<p>^ Your S is going to be ahead of most anyway, you should not be worrying. D. is still waiting for MCAT score. Her friend who took it earlier, said it took 6 weeks to get it.</p>
<p>My DD had some issues with some profs not returning LORs as quickly as hoped, plus TX had an evaluation form that no one ever returned, so we finally just submitted the letters. There was a school in VA that wanted some (stupid extra $) online evaluation (I guess they wanted to reinvent the system) and that was really tough to get completed in July-August.</p>
<p>DD collected as many letters as she could and submitted them, then when some trailing LORs came in, she forwarded those, too.</p>