As the med school application cycle nears, there is one major issue that needs to be addressed: the committee letter. Who does it benefit? Who does it hurt?

Join me in this exploring the problems (and solutions) #MedTwitter #MedStudentTwitter #PremedTwitter

I will preface this by saying that the experience of obtaining a committee letter and how that committee letter is viewed by medical schools can vary. These are my observations as someone who utilized a committee letter and someone who helped write committee letters. 2/

What is a committee letter?
Essentially, this is a composite letter drafted by your undergrad's pre-med advisor based on various things: letters of recommendation, GPA, MCAT, extra-curriculars, sometimes an interview. 3/

These items are combined into a summative evaluation that highlights important aspects, often culminating in a score based on the @AAMCtoday Core Competencies. 4/ https://students-residents.aamc.org/applying-medical-school/article/core-competencies/

Who does this benefit?
Medical schools can benefit from having a standardized method to assess applicants by school. It can also cut down on the time spent reading all of the letters. 5/

Undergrad schools can benefit from gatekeeping who applies, limiting their services to only the most competitive applicants, which can help increase their reported acceptance numbers that are often used to recruit students. 6/

Applicants stand to gain a mild benefit of convenience. Medical school letter requirements are not standardized. A committee letter will supersede all LOR requirements. It has more potential to harm a student since you are relying on a letter from someone you didn't work... 7/

...with to take priority stronger letters from people who know you well. It also places an undue amount of control in one person (often someone not in medicine) to decide whether or not you are qualified to become a physician. 8/

What are the problems?
I already eluded to the gatekeeping aspect earlier, but undergrad school can set criteria for receiving a letter that exceeds the statistics reported by the AAMC. The mean MCAT score of accepted students is 506. Mean cGPA is 3.58. 9/

However, schools like Hunter College (who has a large pre-med program) require a 512 MCAT score and a cGPA of 3.75 to be eligible for a committee letter. This is a rather common practice.

So, just don't get a letter then, right? Wrong. 10/

The conventional wisdom states that if a medical school knows that your undergrad offers a letter and you do not have one, it is a red flag. Besides qualified applicants, who else has a hard time getting a committee letter? Non-trad applicants. 11/

Many schools charge a fee for a committee letter. For example, at MIT, a letter costs $100. At Brown, if you don't want to use their letter service, it still costs you $50. This should be obvious why it's problematic. 12/

Using a committee letter, you can't pick and choose what letters go to what schools. If it's in your committee letter, it's going to all the schools you applied to.

They are often late. My undergrad wouldn't consider you until you submitted AMCAS. 13/

That means that committee letters are often not submitted to schools until late July or August. With rolling admissions, this places students at a major disadvantage. By August, some schools are booked out for interviews into the next year. 14/

What are the solutions?
Medical schools should standardize their LOR requirements
Medical schools should de-emphasize the importance of committee letters, making them truly optional
Undergrads should remove restrictions and fees

End.