Is there any way to tell if you have a good/bad committee letter?

[basupran]

This is a difficult question to answer....
K, here is how it goes....

my recs are mostly from work, and most of my bosses wrote good recs...I am sure that one did not. He didn't like me from the getgo, and he knew I was applying to med school...

I had one professor who I did not know well write me a rec, but he is really nice, so I hope he didn't write anything bad...no reasons to write something bad

My committee letter: I got torn a new dingus during my committee letter interview...the guy who interviewed me is known to be a brilliant philosopher, and he started pulling some medical ethics stuff on me, and it really stressed me out... I pretty much had nothing to say about the questions he asked about so I prob fudged that up...

Would the committee letter go to the point where it would say something bad? Wouldn't it be in the schools best interest to promote me so they could show that they have a high acceptance rate out of their undergrad?

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[jlee9531]

i dont think they are gonna cuss you out but perhaps for the ones you are sure are bad.....
maybe those letters are just not as informative or enthusiastic about you. but in the end i dont think there is anyway you can know what they wrote unless they send you a copy of the letter.
now if you knew one guy was gonna screw you over then why did you ask?

medical ethics hehe. its good stuff.

 

[XCanadianRagwee]

kind of a weird situation for me but here goes.

I interviewed at a school last year, and if you are rejected they will give you an exit interview and tell you what you need to improve on...

One of the first thigns she said to me was, don't ever use your committee letter again. Texas A&M historically has done a horrible job with it, and my application was no exception.

So there you have it.

 

[basupran]

Originally posted by jlee9531
if you knew one guy was gonna screw you over then why did you ask?

medical ethics hehe. its good stuff.

I am such a dummy...I would have felt guilty if I did not ask him...I asked his bosses, and if I didn't ask him, he might have been offended....

 

[nuclearrabbit77]

If you KNOW it's bad. Why on earth use it?

 

[basupran]

Originally posted by XCanadianRagwee
kind of a weird situation for me but here goes.

I interviewed at a school last year, and if you are rejected they will give you an exit interview and tell you what you need to improve on...

One of the first thigns she said to me was, don't ever use your committee letter again. Texas A&M historically has done a horrible job with it, and my application was no exception.

So there you have it.

Interesting...if there was only a way to set up a fake med school so you could designate your committee letter to be sent there...that way, you could read it....
K, I am starting the Basupran School of Medicine (BSM)...have your committee letters sent there, and for $20 bucks, I will send you a copy..

 

[RedHeadKiddo]

Originally posted by basupran
Would the committee letter go to the point where it would say something bad? Wouldn't it be in the schools best interest to promote me so they could show that they have a high acceptance rate out of their undergrad?

You pose a very difficult question. I hope this answers the questions...

I don't think a committee would say anything bad, but they may say something neutral...which can ultimately equal bad. The committee is bound by an ethics code to honestly evaluate potential candidates. If a committee were known to only give outstanding rec's then that school would eventually lose its credibility because it would be recommending people who should not be recommended.

My undergrad committee actually told us how they ranked us: High recommend (the highest), Recommend with enthusiasm (second highest), Recommend (middle of the road), and Not recommend (the lowest). They also gave us guidelines as far as what the acceptance rate for past students with the various recommend levels were. Further, they gave us numbers for each class...approx 6-10 out of 70 got a high recommend, most feel in the recommend with enthusiasm/recommend and probably 15 or so got not recommend. These rankings were also submitted to the schools so they would understand what the rankings meant.

Every school is different in how they approach these situations. Keep in mind that you ultimately pick who sends your recommendations. It is best to have fewer outstanding recommendations than many recommendations that are neutral. You also want to avoid asking recommenders that could include a "John is great...BUT" sentence in the letter. Avoid the BUT.

Good luck!

 

[jesswise]

I have a similar problem- two letters to 2 schools from the same guy have not arrived. I asked him 1 1/2 weeks ago if he sent them before the deadline (Oct 31) and he said he did. Now the med schools are telling me nothing has arrived from him.

I'm a little worried that when I asked him if he thought he could recommend me well he might not have been up-front with me, or maybe he has not been up-front with me about sending by the deadline.

Do I switch referrees? One school requires me to put the names on the application, but there is a process for changing if necessary.

Or do I go back to this guy and discreetly beg him to fess up and tell me what's going on?


Jess

 

[basupran]

Originally posted by jesswise
I have a similar problem- two letters to 2 schools from the same guy have not arrived. I asked him 1 1/2 weeks ago if he sent them before the deadline (Oct 31) and he said he did. Now the med schools are telling me nothing has arrived from him.

I'm a little worried that when I asked him if he thought he could recommend me well he might not have been up-front with me, or maybe he has not been up-front with me about sending by the deadline.

Do I switch referrees? One school requires me to put the names on the application, but there is a process for changing if necessary.

Or do I go back to this guy and discreetly beg him to fess up and tell me what's going on?


Jess

Hmm...I would tell the guy that schools have not gotten them yet, and see how he reacts...make sure you mention that the deadline was so and so....see how he reacts...
if he didn't send it, go elsewhere....
Sometimes med schools take 2 weeks or so to get the letter in their file....you are pushing it, but maybe they were extra slow somewhere...
good luck and I hope it works out!

 

[LUBDUBB]

Originally posted by RedHeadKiddo
You pose a very difficult question. I hope this answers the questions...

I don't think a committee would say anything bad, but they may say something neutral...which can ultimately equal bad. recommendations than many recommendations that are neutral.
Good luck!

Ohh mannn...I've read a few committee letters...and boy they can tear people apart. Yes they will say something bad, if they want to. They will even write in your letter, "we do not recommend him/her", and the bastards won't even tell you. It's not until you waste tons of time and money applying and don't get in anywhere, then you somehow get to read the letter and find out that the committee really screwed you up.

Bottom line: Don't assume that if they don't think you're fit for med school, that they will tell you. They can say whatever the hell they want for whatever the hell reasons they have.

 

[basupran]

Originally posted by LUBDUBB
Ohh mannn...I've read a few committee letters...and boy they can tear people apart. Yes they will say something bad, if they want to. They will even write in your letter, "we do not recommend him/her", and the bastards won't even tell you. It's not until you waste tons of time and money applying and don't get in anywhere, then you somehow get to read the letter and find out that the committee really screwed you up.

Bottom line: Don't assume that if they don't think you're fit for med school, that they will tell you. They can say whatever the hell they want for whatever the hell reasons they have.

What a bunch of jerks...which school was this? How did you find out that they did this to you? I wish they would just be honest and say they can't write a favorable recommendation for you... I wish I could find out only if it was good or bad, or neutral for that matter....

 

[EvoDevo]

What you must realize is that most pre-med committees have no real interest in helping everyone. The ones that I've experienced only care about their own numbers, and they for some reason think that they know who will make a good physician.

Sooo, if you don't exactly fit their preconceived notion of an ideal candidate, they could possibly sabotage you.

My two cents

 

[KarateGirl]

I've wondered whether committees ever push people who might be questionable to boost the college's acceptance numbers. I guess it's possible, but they'd have to be careful not to go overboard, because it wouldn't be hard for the med schools to pick up on it.

I actually got the dirt on my letter from the secretary at the Career Development office who sends it out for me. She didn't tell me what it said, but she said it was impressive. Maybe if you get in with that person at your school, you can get a hint of whether the letter is positive or not.

I would also think that you could contact your premed advisor or someone from the committee to discuss the letter. If you're not getting many interview invites, you could mention it and ask if the letter might have something to do with it, and what you could do from here.

Hopefully it was a good letter. By the way, don't ever worry about offending someone who is going to write you a bad LoR!

Good luck.

 

[Gleevec]

Originally posted by EvoDevo
What you must realize is that most pre-med committees have no real interest in helping everyone. The ones that I've experienced only care about their own numbers, and they for some reason think that they know who will make a good physician.

Sooo, if you don't exactly fit their preconceived notion of an ideal candidate, they could possibly sabotage you.

My two cents

But premed committees try to get in as high a percentage of applicants as possible. If they dont, their jobs are on the line. So its to their benefit to try to discourage subpar applicants to apply, not to stab them behind their back secretly in a committee letter and thus hurt everyone involved.

I know our premed committee will readily tell premeds to delay their application if they are missing or need to improve on something major. I think this is the best way to do it, because it lets the applicant improve and have a better shot at med schools.

 

[persia]

I felt frustrated with my premed office, and I was never even able to ask: is my committee letter positive? I often felt brushed off and the level of assistance for us students was very minimal. I tried to be a proactive student and not create any waves with the staff but sometimes it became hard to get things done. To be honest, there was no guidance for the application process and if it wasn't for SDN I would have had no clue about what to be doing or what schools to even apply to.

I always wondered what the tone was in the final letter, and while I know some people strongly recommended me perhaps some professors were more neutral. I did get accepted and have another interview scheduled so the letter must not be too bad - I guess I wish that I had been able to have a better relationship with the department, and it made me feel insecure in this process.

 

[basupran]

You all have good points...I think the best points lie in the following:
It is in the best interest of the school to give you a LOR, period. They may discourage you to apply if you are not what they think should apply. This would be the SMARTEST way to do things....


As far as my situation goes, I have been out of college for a bit over a year, and my pre-med advisor was willing to help me out...I was very sensitive to how he reacted, looking for the 'maybe you should wait', or maybe you should consider another career.....instead, he broke it down as such: get below a 27, don't bother...get 27-30, they might want to get to know you, anything above, and you got a good shot... This was pre-committee letter interview. The same person took my committee letter interview, and the day it happened was a bad day...I was having problems with a member of the opposite species, and that was getting to me...I wasn't thinking about anything but that, and medical ethics was the last thing on my mind. I felt I didn't do so well during the interview...pretty much got torn a new a**hole... I wouldn't be surprised if I got a crappy recommendation after that...

Anyways, thanks for the input. I should be working on my secondaries as opposed to spending my time on SDN

 

[rgporter]

If you have a 42+ MCAT, 4.0 gpa, rescued a small african nation from an epidemic, interview like a pro; and are rejected it is a good bet that you have a stinky letter somewhere in your portfolio.

Seriously though, this is one of the monsters in every pre-med closet. I started getting my letters together 3 years after I graduated and I lived in constant fear that I had a stinker. I had my first interview at OSU last week and they mentioned how complimentary my letters were to me.

What I did:

When I asked for letters I sent my transcripts, resume and a personalized cover letter to each individual. I explained what I have been doing for the last three years (working in a medical laboratory) and aked them if they would be willing to meet with me, and to write a letter. Everyone agreed to write a LOR, but the best ones came from the professors who took some time to meet me in their office.

My opinion:

LOR's were always the big obstacle for me. I mean how do you get a good one with class of 400+ students; those professors couldn't recognize you 5 minutes after the class is over. Committee letters are a completely different matter. It doesn't seem likely they would try to sabbotage you. But I would practice on your interview skills before you do one. They want to see compassion, introspection, and congeniality. If you don't have those characteristics, do try to gain them, you'll need them over and over as a doctor. Unless your motivation is monitary, in which case being an a$$ is no detriment.