Your Committee Letter

PLEASE NOTE:  The University of Louisville does not have a pre-medical committee that provides committee letters for pre-medical students.  They must  request letters of recommendation from two science and one non-science professor/instructor.  Additional letters may be included from a physician/health professional they've shadowed, a volunteer coordinator they served for, a pre-med advisor, etc.  The information below is strictly for post-bac pre-med students currently in our program applying to medical school.

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 post-bac students currently enrolled.

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. The Program Advisory Committee consists of Tonia D. Thomas, Program Director; Dr. Faye Jones, Assoc. VP of Health Affairs - Diversity Initiatives; Ms. Sharon Gordon, Student Success Coordinator and Ms. Tana Didelot, Assistant Director of Admissions.

Additional recommendations may either be included in the committee letter or they can be sent separately by the individual. For additional recommenders included in the committee letter, they will receive a letter requesting a recommendation for you along with a deadline to respond.

The additional recommendation(s) will include 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 an individual letter writer if they will be included in the committee letter. Their names will be listed in the committee letter along with a tally from their evaluation form and comments or letter of recommendation.

If you prefer not to include additional recommendations in our committee letter and want them as individual letters, you will need to contact them on your own and provide them with an individual letter writer id # to upload onto AMCAS.

Once all documents have been received, the ratings from the evaluation form will be tallied and the letters of recommendation attached. No changes or spell checks are made to the additional recommendation documents. They are literally cut and pasted as is to the committee letter.

If a mistake is noticed, the recommender is notified and given an opportunity to make revisions (e.g., misspellings, etc.)  The document will then be put into PDF format and uploaded to the applicant's AMCAS Letter ID.

 If there is a specific deadline for your committee letter to be received, please inform our office.

For example:

John Doe
AAMC ID #: 0123456

Instructions for you

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 or skills (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 #

• You will need to provide your recommenders with their letter writer id # or the completed 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 who you want to include in the committee letter and whether or not you waive your right to view your committee letter/recommendations and send the form to tonia.thomas@louisville.edu or drop it off at our office.
• If you will not be including additional recommendations, 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.