Bad committee letter

[Jeanne d'Arc]

I got a 2/5 on my college medical committee letter which states recommend with reservations. This is just a tricky way to say we do not want to recommend this person and it was due to my gpa which is 3.45 with a strong upward trend (they said they commend my upward trend). I do not want this to be what destroys my chances at any DO school, I made my application tailored to only applying to DO schools but they denied my request to review me as a DO only student despite how many times I mentioned DO and osteopathic in my resume, personal statement, and even recommendation letters which they also said are very solid. I am sort of confused why they complimented me but gave me a 2/5 but I do not want to argue over this rating, and so I want to ask if I should keep or not use my medical committee letter and use my "solid" rec letters instead? What schools require a committee letter and if so could I bypass it and will this look bad on me?

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[67552931811]

The committee letter thing is bull****. A bunch of non-physicians giving “recommendations” about something they know nothing of.

How would a med school know? My alma mater did this insufferable committee crap. I just got my individual letters and didn’t even bother with them. They didn’t even know I was applying to med school.

Ditch that stupidity if at all possible. This is a good reminder that you are your best advocate and to vet all things before you do them. Anyways, slightly tangential, GL!

 

[Epilepsy365]

I got a 2/5 on my college medical committee letter which states recommend with reservations. This is just a tricky way to say we do not want to recommend this person and it was due to my gpa which is 3.45 with a strong upward trend (they said they commend my upward trend). I do not want this to be what destroys my chances at any DO school, I made my application tailored to only applying to DO schools but they denied my request to review me as a DO only student despite how many times I mentioned DO and osteopathic in my resume, personal statement, and even recommendation letters which they also said are very solid. I am sort of confused why they complimented me but gave me a 2/5 but I do not want to argue over this rating, and so I want to ask if I should keep or not use my medical committee letter and use my "solid" rec letters instead? What schools require a committee letter and if so could I bypass it and will this look bad on me?

It seems like you already know the answer to your dilemma. Get going. Bc I can assure you that your chances of being a physician is next to zero if you go with that committee letter.

 

[Sardonix]

What an absolutely crappy thing of your school to do. I have plenty of classmates with worse stats than that who just matched.

 

[Jeanne d'Arc]

They said if I wanted I can have them not send the letter and just state that I have done the process, is this ok, or will this bring a red flag on why I did not want them to include the letter? @Goro any advice or comments here?

 

[deleted936470]

I'd just submit individual LORs from professors, etc. If prompted on why you didn't provide a committee letter (unlikely) say because they were dubious to recommend you because of your 3.45.

 

[Goro]

I got a 2/5 on my college medical committee letter which states recommend with reservations. This is just a tricky way to say we do not want to recommend this person and it was due to my gpa which is 3.45 with a strong upward trend (they said they commend my upward trend). I do not want this to be what destroys my chances at any DO school, I made my application tailored to only applying to DO schools but they denied my request to review me as a DO only student despite how many times I mentioned DO and osteopathic in my resume, personal statement, and even recommendation letters which they also said are very solid. I am sort of confused why they complimented me but gave me a 2/5 but I do not want to argue over this rating, and so I want to ask if I should keep or not use my medical committee letter and use my "solid" rec letters instead? What schools require a committee letter and if so could I bypass it and will this look bad on me?

This would be a kiss of death at my school. Your poor eval is NOT due to anything lacking in "DO-philia".

DO schools are also not as anal about committee LORs as MD ones.

 

[Splenda88]

DO NOT USE THAT LETTER...

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Moving to pre-DO.

 

[GreenDuck12]

This is an easy one: go with a letter packet or individual letters of recommendation and don't give it a second thought. Submitting bad letters of rec or a bad committee letter gives the impression that you weren't able to find *anyone* to say something positive about you. While your positive letters of recommendation would be included in your committee letter, it is doubtful that an admissions committee would take the time to get past such a low evaluation. Don't stress about it too much - many programs don't offer committee letters and their applicants do just fine.

 

[Dr. Anonymouss]

I submitted my application without a committee letter and got 6 DO and 1 MD acceptance. Find physicians and faculty who will actually write something good about you.

 

[Mimosas]

Reiterating what some have said above, do not send that committee letter. You still need letters from like 2 science professors and 1 non-science professor. Find professors who can speak well of you and request individual letters to fulfill the LOR requirements. Then find a DO to write a LOR as well, or an MD if there is no DO. Good luck!

 

[Aleaz]

IGNORE it. My medical school REFUSED me a gifted rotation with K.K. Wong--famous researcher who at that time was at City of Hope Cancer Research Center, Duarte, Ca. They said "We train family physicians, not researchers." I was CHOSEN over Fellows for the because I LOVE Immunology and rotated thru there on an IM/Onc rotation. They loved me too SO IF THEY ARE CLUELESS-IGNORE IT Move on.

So use the good and if they ASK? Tell em the TRUTH! That you felt that letter Comm. did not understand your goals nor who you are as a person.

 

[NoobieScribe]

Like what’s been mentioned above, I’d get individual LORs if possible. I was never asked why I didn’t have a committee letter at any of my interviews (Attended 7 interviews). Possible I was lucky.

 

[Dr. Foresight]

In addition to the great advice you've gotten here, go kill the MCAT.

After you get accepted next year, go back to whoever is the head of that committee and slap a copy of your acceptance letter on their desk. If you feel up to it, look deep into there eyes and say something I cant write here. Next give them the bird (maybe wave it back and forth a little bit if you feel like it). With the bird high in the air, do a little dance as you leave there office. ...


Just kidding dont do that last part as you'll probably get kicked out of school and lose the acceptance. But do go show them they were dead wrong. If you needed more motivation, that's it right there.

 

[Blueprint Med School]

In addition to the great advice you've gotten here, go kill the MCAT.

After you get accepted next year, go back to whoever is the head of that committee and slap a copy of your acceptance letter on their desk. If you feel up to it, look deep into there eyes and say something I cant write here. Next give them the bird (maybe wave it back and forth a little bit if you feel like it). With the bird high in the air, do a little dance as you leave there office. ...


Just kidding dont do that last part as you'll probably get kicked out of school and lose the acceptance. But do go show them they were dead wrong. If you needed more motivation, that's it right there.

This. Make it the chip on your shoulder. As someone who graduated 141st/156 students in High School and made it all the way, hell hath no fury like someone on a mission to prove others wrong!

David D, MD - USMLE and MCAT Tutor
Med School Tutors

 

[WannaBeDoc973]

I got a 2/5 on my college medical committee letter which states recommend with reservations. This is just a tricky way to say we do not want to recommend this person and it was due to my gpa which is 3.45 with a strong upward trend (they said they commend my upward trend). I do not want this to be what destroys my chances at any DO school, I made my application tailored to only applying to DO schools but they denied my request to review me as a DO only student despite how many times I mentioned DO and osteopathic in my resume, personal statement, and even recommendation letters which they also said are very solid. I am sort of confused why they complimented me but gave me a 2/5 but I do not want to argue over this rating, and so I want to ask if I should keep or not use my medical committee letter and use my "solid" rec letters instead? What schools require a committee letter and if so could I bypass it and will this look bad on me?

To somewhat expand on what everyone else has already stated, I wouldn’t consider it the end of the world even if you use it. The committee at my school was similar and harped every student on one thing or another. They wrote letters of evaluation, bringing up both the good and bad sides of students, as opposed to saying why they should be considered a good applicant. In reality, the committee was made up of people who knew nothing about the application process and should not have been evaluating anyone in regards to medical school. Other pre-med advisers, who were not committee members at my school, even recommended some students to not use the committee letter, especially if you were not considering MD schools. Personally, I did not think my evaluation was good or bad, more or less neutral based on their feedback. Since I was applying to both MD and DO schools, I used it anyway because some of the MD schools in my state really looked for it, I just made sure to add other letters around it that I knew would be really solid. For me that was physicians I had shadowed, a research mentor from another university where I spent a summer, and other professors from my university. I got plenty of interviews and got accepted, so I wouldn’t fret too much about your committee letter. Worry about your other stats, get an interview, and show them who you are in person, most interviewers are pretty good at telling whether or not a committee evaluation is accurate. I know this response is late, but if you’re still worried about it I hope it helps.


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[Goro]

To somewhat expand on what everyone else has already stated, I wouldn’t consider it the end of the world even if you use it. The committee at my school was similar and harped every student on one thing or another. They wrote letters of evaluation, bringing up both the good and bad sides of students, as opposed to saying why they should be considered a good applicant. In reality, the committee was made up of people who knew nothing about the application process and should not have been evaluating anyone in regards to medical school. Other pre-med advisers, who were not committee members at my school, even recommended some students to not use the committee letter, especially if you were not considering MD schools. Personally, I did not think my evaluation was good or bad, more or less neutral based on their feedback. Since I was applying to both MD and DO schools, I used it anyway because some of the MD schools in my state really looked for it, I just made sure to add other letters around it that I knew would be really solid. For me that was physicians I had shadowed, a research mentor from another university where I spent a summer, and other professors from my university. I got plenty of interviews and got accepted, so I wouldn’t fret too much about your committee letter. Worry about your other stats, get an interview, and show them who you are in person, most interviewers are pretty good at telling whether or not a committee evaluation is accurate. I know this response is late, but if you’re still worried about it I hope it helps.


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This is an opinion so off base that it's almost malicious. As I have stated earlier, a bad committee LOR will be an autoreject at my school, and others.

How did your "meh" LOR (which is at least NOT a "recommend with reservations ") work out for you???? LMU is not a school I can recommend, especially thier new campus.

 

[WannaBeDoc973]

This is an opinion so off base that it's almost malicious. As I have stated earlier, a bad committee LOR will be an autoreject at my school, and others.

How did your "meh" LOR (which is at least NOT a "recommend with reservations ") work out for you???? LMU is not a school I can recommend, especially thier new campus.

It worked out fine. I received IIs at the majority of the schools I applied to. My final decision has a lot to do with the proximity to my support network, and has yet to be made, but thanks for your concern. I had no intentions of being misleading and definitely not malicious. The advisors at my undergrad were definitely sub-par and so was our committee. We were made to believe that a committee letter was mandatory and it was impossibly to get an acceptance without one, particularly at an MD school. If that’s not true, then great. I am not a fan of committee letters, based on more reasons than my own “meh” one. All I was trying to get across was that it’s not going to be make or break at EVERY school. A mentor of mine, who is an admissions committee member at a state MD school said they typically view committee letters as “lukewarm” letters and that only the bad letters are detrimental to an applicant’s chances. In this case,I do agree it would be better for the OP to just use individual letters.


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[Jeanne d'Arc]

I made the decision to do individual letters, what is the best way I do this without asking them to send an email to each school im applying to? I know there is interfolio but that requires a physical mailed copy and im not sure how to give them a stamped envelope when the professors are stuck at home.

 

[Mimosas]

I made the decision to do individual letters, what is the best way I do this without asking them to send an email to each school im applying to? I know there is interfolio but that requires a physical mailed copy and im not sure how to give them a stamped envelope when the professors are stuck at home.

Individual letters can be sent through AACOMAS. You put their name and email info into the LOR section of AACOMAS. Then AACOMAS will email them with instructions. Then you wait for confirmation. AAMC is done similarly except I think you download the instructions and send it to that professor.

 

[Jeanne d'Arc]

Thank you everyone for the input. Hopefully TMDSAS is the same since I am Texas resident and am applying to all 3 Texas DO schools.