Post-Baccalaureate Pre-Med Program

YOUR COMMITTEE LETTER

Letters of recommendation for medical school may come in the form of individual letters, a letter packet or a committee letter and are accepted by medical schools to endorse or support the medical school candidate.  Our program provides a committee letter for its students.

Our committee letter includes an evaluation form and a letter of recommendation from the Program Director/Advisor and a statement of endorsement by the Program Advisory Committee.  Additional recommenders may be included in the committee letter or they can send their letters individually.  For those recommenders included in the committee letter, they will receive a letter from our office indicating that you requested them as a recommender and will be given a deadline to respond.

The recommenders will be required to complete an evaluation form to rate the applicant (see below) and to provide comments or an attached letter of recommendation.  You do not have to indicate them as individual letter writer since they will be a part of the committee letter.  Their names will be listed in the letter along with their evaluation form and comments or letter of recommendation.

If you prefer not to include additional recommenders in our committee letter and want them as individual letters, you will need to contact them on your own and provide them the necessary information to upload onto AMCAS.

Once all documents have been received, the ratings from the Director and the additional recommenders will be tallied and each recommender will have their letter of recommendation attached. No changes or spell checks are made to the additional recommender's documents.  They are literally cut and pasted as is to the committee letter.  The document will then be put into PDF format and uploaded to the applicant's AMCAS Letter ID.

Your committee letter will be submitted after your mock interview has been conducted.  If there is a specific deadline for your committee letter to be received, please inform our office so your mock interview can be expedited.

For example:

John Doe
AAMC ID #: 0123456

INSTRUCTIONS FOR OUR STUDENTS

Decide who you want to recommend you for medical school.

• Most medical schools require at least two science and one non-science faculty member.  Most will also accept additional recommenders outside of the classroom.  For our committee letter you may include faculty, mentors, physicians you've shadowed or other professionals who can speak on your behalf.
• You want to select someone who is familiar with you and can speak positively about your character, academics and/or talents (e.g., leadership) and why you would be a qualified candidate for medical school.

Suggestion:  Schedule a meeting with your potential recommender and provide him/her with your resume, personal statement (even if it's not the final draft) and any other helpful background information.  If a meeting isn't possible, send an e-mail with your attached information and follow up with a phone call.

Go to AMCAS to register and receive your AMCAS Letter ID #

• On pages 60-65 of the AMCAS 2014 Instruction Manual you will find helpful information regarding letters of evaluation.  You will need to provide your recommenders with this information and an AMCAS letter request form unless they're being included in our committee letter.  The contact information is as follows: Tonia D. Thomas, Program Director, Post-bac Pre-med  Program, University of Louisville, College of A & S Advising, 2301 S. Third Street, Louisville KY 40292.  If additional information is needed, please contact our office.   
  

Complete the Student Consent Form for the Program

• Indicate the recommenders that you want to include in your committee letter and whether or not you waive your right to view your committee letter/recommendations and send the form to pbpmed@louisville.edu or drop it off at our office.
• If you will not be including additional recommenders, please indicate whether or not you waive your right to view your committee letter/recommendations.
  
• Once the Student Consent Form is received, your recommenders are notified via e-mail and will receive a letter requesting their recommendation and a form for them to complete.  They will also be given a preferred deadline, generally a two week turn around period.  Our office will contact them a week before it's due and will continue to follow up until it's received.
• You may check on line via your AMCAS account to see if its been uploaded.  Our office will also contact you when your committee letter has been uploaded.