Non-Trad, Committee Letter

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>Hi folks,</p>

<p>I have concerns regarding where to obtain my committee letter (well, in general, ALL of my letters), but have received conflicting advice. I am currently finishing pre-reqs (at night) at local state U and will be taking the MCAT next year (Spring 2013), with plans to apply June 2013. This leaves me about 1 year starting now to obtain good letters of rec before the committee letter goes out, which is why it is important that I figure this out now--the sooner the better.</p>

<p>My UG tells me that the brunt of my letters, + comm letter, should be from them. Reasoning: while I am taking a small number of courses now with post-bac institution (not formal), the brunt of my credits were earned from the UG institute. I graduated in 2010.</p>

<p>Pros (my PoV):
- I am more familiar with my UG overall, would feel more comfortable approaching profs there
- I would prefer to be accepted into MS from same state as UG (although I am not really sure state of origin w.r.t. letters matters at all?)</p>

<p>Cons:
- getting LoRs from profs will be difficult, as UG is not close by, and profs that taught me will not remember me, and may not even be there any more.
- even if I can find profs that will write for me, how good could they possibly be?</p>

<p>My post-bac uni tells me that letters + comm letter should come from them. Reasoning: most recent coursework, and they are just "really really really good" at writing letters.</p>

<p>Pros:
- "better" letters, in that they will be written by profs that have a more recent relationship with me, and I can actually impact my rapport with those individual profs
- "easier", in that i am on campus all week anyway</p>

<p>Cons:
- less than 10% of my total credits will be obtained from post-bac uni
- I am less familiar with this institution overall
- not the state I wish to attend MS (see above)</p>

<p>My gut feeling is that, in either case, it doesn't actually matter which institution I receive letters + comm letter from, as long as they are "good." Obtaining "good" letters is where I perceive an issue. My two main questions (feel free to add anything you deem appropriate outside of these, of course):</p>

<ol>
<li>Given that I can obtain good letters from either institution, which would you recommend based on the above (or your own experiences)?
2, Which institution do you think would give better letters in general (just based on most recent vs. UG, I realize you cannot possibly predict the quality of individual letters).</li>
</ol>

<p>Thanks.</p>

2

<p>I don’t really know the answer, but my 2 cents would be:</p>

<p>For your individual writers, I imagine you should have at least 1 from each. I forget how many you need but after that I think you go with the people who will write you the best letters regardless of where they are. You should also probably have a letter from whatever else you’ve been doing during the 3 years between graduating and apps.</p>

<p>For the actual committee, I think it depends on why you did there post bacc and the quality of the two institutions. Are you doing a post bacc because you weren’t a pre-med at all or because you needed to beef up your app? If it’s the latter, definitely go with the post-bacc’s letter as it will probably be better. If it’s the former, I would lean toward the UG since they know you better (even if it’s old news) and thus you probably accomplished more there unless maybe the post-bacc is a much more prestigious school where they can rank you among a hierarchy of higher quality kids.</p>

3

<p>@iwbB</p>

<p>Thanks you for your thoughts.</p>

<p>I intend get letters representative of both universities if I can, I am simply wondering which one should I focus my efforts on. As far as what I have been doing, I have been working–I am under the impression that MS admissions will not care what my employers have to say (at least, in a formal LoR). Someone please correct me on that if I am wrong.</p>

<p>As far as my personal situation, I did well during UG, the reason for this post-bacc work is due to my walking the fence (pre-med VS. other) until finally deciding to go for the career. I’ve since changed my mind, which is why I find myself in this situation (i.e. finishing pre-reqs). I believe that I have a strong academic background at my UG, and if I am to have any shot at getting into medical school, I will continue to excel at my current institution, so for the purposes of this question assume either school would have a strong sample of my academic work.</p>

<p>As for your point on prestige, I would rate them essentially equivalent in that regard.</p>

4

<p>With regard to your employer, it depends on what you’re doing. If you’re bagging groceries or a mail man, definitely don’t need a letter, but if you’re doing anything remotely established or relevant (e.g. anything in the medical field, research of any kind, banking, teaching, working at a non-profit, consulting, basically anything that requires a bachelor’s degree from a top 100 school) you should have your employer/supervisor write you a letter and if your work is unrelated, you may have to remind them that they’re writing about you for medical school, not another job in their field, and so probably need to highlight your more intangible qualities like dedication, teamwork, intelligence, etc. rather than your skills. This job has been the majority of your time since you left college, so to not have someone discussing how you’ve done would seem weird to me if I were an admissions officer. (I would probably assume things weren’t going well and you couldn’t get a good letter from anyone)</p>

<p>You might try posting your question on Studentdoctor.net since the odds that someone who has done admissions seeing your post is higher and they will help sort out which committee letter is more important.</p>

5

<p>Hmm, I have never posted on SND. I suppose I will give that a shot. My employer could be perceived as “medically related,” but not even remotely in the clinical sense. Your opinion on an employer letter is the first I’ve heard in that direction–frankly, I’ve had several people/sources tell me the polar opposite.</p>

<p>I’d really appreciate it if others could weigh in on that front (specifically other non-trads/parents of non-trads). Did you or your child seek a LoR from their employer?</p>

<p>Honestly, I don’t see how that would be received well. There are all sorts of issues that could conceivably come up if I approached my bosses with a request like that, not the least of which is the question, “wait, you plan to leave us?”</p>

<p>Anyway, if anyone can add more on that subject, or the committee letter, I would really appreciate it.</p>

6

<p>oh, interesting, sorry. Like I said, I don’t know, but I am surprised that people wouldn’t want to hear from your boss.</p>

<p>With regard to your boss, you’re going to have to tell them eventually, you’re going to miss a lot of days for interviews. I guess since I didn’t work outside of biology my employer knew upfront that I was only going to be there for 1 year, and I never thought about stuff like that, although they did try to convince me to not take any time off between work and school and work right up until the last possible day.</p>

<p>Definitely post on SDN then, just be wary, that side is 1000x worse than CC when it comes to neuroticism.</p>