<p>My son just completed two internships this summer (college sophomore). Two questions on letters of recommendation: </p>
<p>1.) We're assuming he can't receive the letters himself since he will waive that right on his med school application. Should they send them directly to his college? Is there a website or service that can "hold" these for you until you need them? </p>
<p>2.) Is it wise to ask for as many letters of recommendation as you can get or only ask from those when you're sure they will be great? He has great relationships with both internships, but what if the letter writer does not do a good job (i.e. they're not a good writer, don't include many details etc). Does that hurt you?</p>
<p>1) He needs to open an Interfolio account and have his writers upload their confidential letters to his account. There’s a small charge each year for the account, but using it will protect the confidentiality of his LORs. (Very important for med school applications.)</p>
<p>Don’t have them sent to his college in advance of his opening the committee letter process. They’ll just get tossed if he doesn’t have an open account with the committee–something he won’t be able to do until spring of his junior year.</p>
<p>One last option is to ask his letter writers for LOR, but ask if they will hold it until he’s ready to apply. He can then contact his writers with updates (!!! grades, activities, research projects etc) and ask them to ‘freshen’ the old LOR and send it either an Interfolio account, AMCAS account or his health profession committee. (Different schools have different processes. D2’s school won’t accept any supporting LORs since they don’t use the letter packet format.)</p>
<p>The latter option is probably the best since adcoms don’t like stale (more a year old) LORs.</p>
<p>2) He needs to specifically ask every potential letter writer if he/she can write a “very strong” recommendation. Unless, the writer answers an unequivocal “yes”, then don’t even ask. </p>
<p>Badly written LORs can hurt his application, but that’s the risk he takes by having his letters remain confidential.</p>
<p>There are tons of sample LORs for med school admissions out on the internet (most posted by university health committees) if the writer doesn’t have experience writing LORs. And often med schools adcomms are a bit forgiving of grammar and usage errors if it’s apparent the writer isn’t a native English speaker.</p>
<p>Wayoutwestmom - thanks for this great information! Just a few more questions please based on your answers.</p>
<p>1.) He will have about 100 hours at the first internship. He may return to this facility on and off for the next two years. My advice to him initially was to make sure he got the letter now, just in case he does not return and because the letter writer would know him best at this point in time. Should he ask for the letter now and if he does return at a later date, ask the letter writer to update the letter? </p>
<p>2.) His college does a composite letter and asks for five recommendation letters. Do pre-med advisory committees typically use the “best” letters when writing their composite letter? Is it better to have five spectacular letters or five spectacular letters and three great letters so to speak? The second internship was only 30 hours, but the letter writer is impressed with him. (Note: both internships were clinical experiences with patient contact, not shadowing).</p>
<p>1) He needs to make a judgment call about asking now or holding off. I can’t guess how likely it is he will continue to interact with the mentor. If it’s likely, I’d recommend waiting to ask later. Writing a good letter takes a good chunk of time. Even freshening a letter takes time. It’s not something to be asked lightly or casually of a busy indivdual.</p>
<p>And there’s always the possibility he may find some other writer who he may prefer in the future. I think asking for letter, then not actually using it at a later date is rude.</p>
<p>2) This is a school specific issue–one he needs to ask the health professions advisor about. How many letters the committee will look at is going to depend on the committee’s specific policy.</p>
<p>when you say college sophomore, do you mean he finished his sophomore year and will be a junior (applying in 1+ years) or he is a rising sophomore (applying in 2+ years)?</p>
<p>If he’s two years away from applying, then don’t ask for the letter now. Your son will grow and change in the next 2 years (at least I hope so), so wait until he’s closer to applying to ask for a letter. It’s way too soon to ask now.</p>
<p>DS asked one professor who taught him 2 years earlier to write the LOR. He still remembered him. The reason: For one or two semesters, DS met him at a nearby music store every week because the time DS went to the store to take some “lesson” (he tried to get into a new instrument at that time) and the time the professor took his D there happened to be the same. I heard they talked about non-academic stuff there. I guess the professor had a chance to know the non-nerdy aspect of DS, in the out-of-the-classroom context.He was his physics professor.</p>
<p>Re: 5 awesome or 5 awesome + 3 OK–my preference is 5 awesome. Don’t give them a reason to think you’re anything less than amazing! I’d also be worried the 3 OK ones would detract from the awesome ones. Just my opinion!</p>
<p>It is too early for LORs. The best is to have long term engagements at UG and ask for the LORs before applying. D. did that (working for Gen. Chem. prof. for 3 years and interning in Med. Research Lab for 3 years both resulted in great recognitions, not only LORs)
I would wait, you S. will have something at his UG that will result in great LORs</p>
<p>Hi everyone. Thanks for all of the great input. To answer some questions, he does plan to do research at his UG and have good letters from there. He may or may not continue with this internship. The head physician at the facility has offered to write him a letter (he didn’t ask). So he’s not sure whether to just take it now while she knows him best or take a chance that he will continue there during breaks and summers. He will have to decide that based on the input provided here.</p>
My son just went through the committee process at JHU. As a result, I also gained some insight into how it works - at least at his school. </p>
<p>1) Sometime early in junior year, potential applicants are asked to open veCollect accounts.
2) Applicant sends formal requests to recommenders through veCollect with instructions.
3) Recommenders write letters per the instructions and send them as e-mail attachments to the veCollect system.
4) Applicant is required to monitor the submission of letters into veCollect and create a “Quiver” when all letters are received and notify the pre-health office.
5) Applicant fills “committee packet” and submits it along with PS, CV, write-ups on experiences, etc.
6) A designated committee member interviews the applicant and writes a note of recommendation.
7) Applicant hands over a copy of the primary application and the master school list to the pre-health office.
7) Pre-health committee convenes and decides on a composite recommendation rating.
8) Pre-health advisor writes a composite recommendation letter using the recommendation note from the interviewer, individual recommendation letters, PS, CV, experiences etc.
9) All the committee members read the letters and approve the final recommendation rating.
10) Pre-health office transmits the letter packet consisting of the composite letter and the individual letters electronically through veCollect</p>
<p>Phew! Now the disclaimer - no two pre-health committees work the same way. Your mileage may vary.</p>
<p>Hi Kal123 - that is a very organized and detailed process…good information. I do have a question for you. When did the pre-health committee write your son’s composite letter? My son’s college writes their letters in the summer following their junior year. I keep reading that you need to apply as early as possible. If the application process opens up in June, is that too late then?</p>
<p>Nearly every college in the country that has a pre med committee writes its letter sometime during the summer. It’s not uncommon for comittee letters not to sent out until July-August, even at some schools not until September. You’re simply not going to rush the committee process. It is what it is. </p>
<p>So long as his primary application has been submitted and verified, your son can receive secondaries. (Actually this year due to delays at AMCAS, secondaries from some schools went out to un-verified applicants.) He can complete his secondaries and pay his fees. Once his committee letter is uploaded to AMCAS, it will be sent out to the schools he’s designated within a couple of days. Being complete in August (or even mid- September) is not going noticably affect his chances to get for IIs. The interview season is long–stretching from August well into March, even April.</p>