<p>How important of a role do pre medical advisory commitees play in the medical school admissions part? </p>
<p>I've heard a lot about how they are very prominent in big/elite schools such as the Ivies, etc. But really, are they that important? Would they be of significant help to a student is determined to go to med. school no matter what it takes?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>How does the committee get an aggregation of rec letters? </p>
<p>Don’t you have to ask professors individually for letters of rec? So what does the letters of rec from a pre-med committee hold in importance?</p>
<p>^ You still need to aske professors individually for LOR. The letters are sent to the committee. Then, the committee write ONE letter based on the info contained in the LOR from the professors. Likely, the medical school adcom only reads the committee letter, not the LORs from your professors, even though in principle they may read professor’s LOR. (but likely not, if an adcom has 5000 to 10000 applications to review.)</p>
<p>At least this is my understanding about how this works.</p>
<p>I suspect that the medical school admission office has relatively much smaller budget as compared to that for a college – the latter is likely a more “profitable” business for a university. (Maybe I should not call a school a business. It is a non-profitable organization afterall.)</p>
<p>I hope I understand this…</p>
<p>A student has a few profs write LORs and send them to the PreMed committee and they take those and create ONE big letter (like a BIG LOR). </p>
<p>So, then do the students ALSO have their profs send LORs to their med schools? Or is the BIG letter in lieu of that???</p>
<p>The LORs are packaged together by the committee and sent in a bundle.</p>
<p>Ahhh…so this bundle is sent to each med school that the student is applying to. </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Right, mom2.</p>
<p>I think it might present an advantage to kids who have strong letters/recommenders. I wanted to collect letters from a variety of people, and the committee letter made that a piece of cake. I sent 8 letters (which might seem overkill–but each of them was distinct, and provided a different view of me, which is why I went with all of them!) to the committee. They wrote basically a cover letter (using info from the letters and from an interview/meeting with me) summarizing the great pieces of my letter and providing more info about me (especially about how I compare to other premeds my year). Had I not used the committee letter approach, I likely would have been limited to three letters–two from science profs, one from another person.</p>
<p>My committee letter ended up at 4+ pages, and the guy that’s the head of the committee later joked that mine was one of the thickest packets they’ve ever compiled–a whopping 20+ pages after all was said and done. </p>
<p>Was this “too much”? I don’t think so. I knew going into it that my letters and my resume were the strongest parts of my application (mediocre stats from a big state public school), so I made a point to make my letters shine. I think the reason it worked is that I had a variety of recommenders: honors organic chemistry prof, animal physiology prof/premed advisor/advisor for a nonprofit I started, instructor of a leadership class I took, PI from a lab I’ve worked in since freshman year, two physicians I shadowed for 2+ years each, social worker from the agency where I’ve volunteered for awhile, and a prominent health literacy professional (the nonprofit I started deals with health literacy). I assume each had a slightly different opinion/view of me, and I would hope that the final product painted a pretty complete picture (which I imagine it did).</p>
<p>So to the OP: it’s worth your while to get to know your premed committee. I’ve also heard that it raises eyebrows at medical schools if you choose not to use the committee and a committee is available. Think of the committee letter as your university’s endorsement of you as a candidate for medical school.</p>
<p>So, the commitee *only * helps you out with recommendation letters? Is that it? Or does it also help in other ways to help you package yourself?</p>
<p>I have heard from ppl (and from CC) that I should go to a comparatively non-competitive school over an elite, uber-competitive one and earn a high GPA in my undergrad. years, while at the same time, have more time to study for the MCAT.</p>
<p>However, should I consider the importance of a premed commitee in choosing my undergrad. school or not?</p>
<p>"How important of a role do pre medical advisory commitees play in the medical school admissions part? "</p>
<p>-I imagine that everybody’s experience is different here. Pre medical advisory commitee and pre-med advisor had huge positive impact on D’s Med. School application process. She was done earlier and had great success with her acceptances. She followed pre-med advisor’s recommendations, but only if it met her own criteria in regard to choosing Med. Schools. Worked very well for her. How one would know college premed commitee before actually working with them is very unclear to me. D. had no idea about pre-med commitee at her school before she started Med. School application process.</p>
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</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1853709-post20.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1853709-post20.html</a></p>
<p>Also see:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1853671-post19.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1853671-post19.html</a></p>
<p>Nitcomp,</p>
<p>Take BDM’s post to heart. If you can find a school that isn’t expensive, that isn’t uber competitive (thus allowing you to get high grades and do cool things), that’s in an area of the country you like, AND that has phenomenal premed advising…</p>
<p>Well, I can’t imagine going anywhere else.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I know this was posted some time ago. Is this statement still true today? Is the following a good analogy?</p>
<p>WUSTL : National = Baylor : Texas.</p>
<p>If Baylor has a nerdier student body, WUSTL may have the nerdiest one then. LOL.</p>
<p>*I have heard from ppl (and from CC) that I should go to a comparatively non-competitive school over an elite, uber-competitive one and earn a high GPA in my undergrad. years, while at the same time, have more time to study for the MCAT.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>It just makes sooooo much sense to go to a school where your stats, your accomplishments, your grades, etc, will stand out to the profs. Profs always know who their best students are. They know their names. They know their faces. It can only help.</p>
<p>I’ve never thought of myself as a nerd!</p>
<p>As a person coming from one of those competitive colleges but one that has phenomenal undergrad advising, I don’t regret my decision a bit. But I do agree with the advice of posters above, that going to a college where you might stand out instead of be one of many of very competitive students may be much better in terms of recommendations (and your grades!). </p>
<p>The reason why I love being at Washu so much has nothing to do with my grades but because of the research opportunities I have here, the premed advising team which has been there for me at every turn, and some really cool professors. I do however have to take small classes that aren’t my first choice if I want a rec. Go way out of my way to stand out to the prof. And my grades aren’t stellar (3.6) where I probably would have better elsewhere. </p>
<p>And the stuff I listed above, you can find at many other schools both public and private. I didn’t have the advice of CC when I was applying to colleges or I probably would have gone to mizzou and saved a ton of money so that I wouldn’t have to worry about that for medschool and maybe even has stellar stats like Kristin!</p>
<p>ChemFreak! I’m flattered 
it has been a helluva ride and I’m glad at least the interviewing part of this is over. </p>
<p>And i think another reason you like WashU is because of the Loop/FoPo. Pretty great place to live as a 20-something, don’t you agree?</p>
<p>Yeah. I’m not completely on the bandwagon. I think it’s more complex and individual.
There are lots of things that go into making the decision about UG and fit. This is certainly one of them. $ is another. Location, political/social atmosphere, lots of things. Opportunities. Connections. </p>
<p>I really would have liked for my D to have been able to make her UG choice without $ being an issue, but that didn’t happen. There are many advantages to going to the finest universities. The question is, what decision is right for you? What is right for somebody else really doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>D. is gong with her “feel” of place and people there. She is going to “feel” them out on second visits before she decided on Med. School. She went with her “gut feelings”, the place that fit her personality the best and had opportunities outside of academics as well when choosing UG. Pretty campus and non-city location in a middle of nowhere were important at that time. Being comfortable for 4 years of your life is important and so are opportunites there that could be predicted somewhat by amount of your Merit awards - if they appreciate you and want you badly, you will have great opportunities there, not only on financial side but pursuing all of your interests. It has all exceeded her/ours expectations by far in many aspects of D’s UG education. </p>
<p>Trust yourself, go where you think you will be happy, do not calculate too much. Actually, any place will work for hard working person, although some places might open more doors and give more chances than others. According to D., opportunities were there, she grabbed them, while others were passing by.</p>
<p>Just a casual observer, but this thread makes me wonder –</p>
<p>If a student is at a large public University with relatively ineffective pre-med advising, is it possible to hire an outside consultant, as some high schoolers do in their undergrad process?</p>
<p>As a proponent of public education, I’m always looking for ways that public University students might augment the constrained human resources at Public U.</p>
<p>Anyway, thank you everyone for all the replies! It really helped.</p>
<p>A quick google search (“medical school admissions consulting”) will demonstrate that rates for such services are about $295 an hour.</p>