Updating a Letter of Rec Once it Has Already Gone Out?

[YoungMoneyMint]

I just had a conversation with one of my letter writers, and it turns out they made a mistake with my place of birth (i.e. said I was born outside of the country when I was born domestically; granted, I have lived outside of the US for over a decade.) My actual place of birth is well-documented on my primary, but I'm worried that schools might find this discrepancy alarming. The letter has been transmitted to quite a few schools already. Apart from this, the letter is 2 pages long (according to Interfolio), and overwhelmingly positive (according to him).

He has already updated the letter and has it ready to go in case there is any way to resubmit without potentially causing damage to my app.

Am I blowing this out of proportion? And if not, is there any way to update the letter for schools who have already received it?

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[Mr.Smile12]

Usually not but I would have your reference check on this. Say they uploaded a draft and not the final.

 

[YoungMoneyMint]

Hmm, that could work, although I'm hesitant to call attention to it with the schools directly (as the letter was submitted over a month ago.) @Goro @gonnif @LizzyM what do you all think? Overthinking?

 

[LizzyM]

Not a big deal. I'd believe your application more than a LOR with regard to place of birth and just make the assumption that the letter writer recalled incorrectly or was reusing a letter written for someone else (you'd be surprised how often that happens!).

 

[YoungMoneyMint]

Not a big deal. I'd believe your application more than a LOR with regard to place of birth and just make the assumption that the letter writer recalled incorrectly or was reusing a letter written for someone else (you'd be surprised how often that happens!).

I do mention the country he’s referencing very frequently through my application materials (which is where I believe the miscommunication happened), so hopefully the latter isn’t assumed!

But thank you, I’ll just create a new entry and submit the updated letter to the ~17 schools I have left

 

[YoungMoneyMint]

@gonnif @LizzyM @Goro @Mr.Smile12 Uh oh… I have already added an entry for the same professor. Should I contact AMCAS and explain that I didn’t know this was a requirement? I spent hundred of hours on my app so I’d prefer not to let this get to the extreme if they find out themselves @gonnif

Please advise.

 

[YoungMoneyMint]

Update: just talked to AMCAS, and everything is OK! I was able to mark the new letter as ‘Not Being Sent’ and I had only sent one of the other duplicate entries out to all schools. Thank you @gonnif for the timely intervention. Will read AAMC requirements more closely in the future.