Getting a low grade and pre-med

WayOutWestMom
Sat, 29 Dec 2012 14:05:57 +0000

UR (and many other universities) use a committee letter for health profession students. It’s the school’s endorsement of your application for medical school and replaces the specific LOR requirements for med school admissions. Since UR offers a committee letter, you will be expected to have one and not having one will raise a major red flag on your application. (Seriously, not having one can completely tank your application.)

Alumni applicants are also expected to submit a committee letter to med schools if their undergrad offers one.

Basically, in the early spring of your junior year (or the spring when you plan to apply), you will apply to the health professions advising office for committee letter. You will provide at least 3 LORs (2 from BCPM profs and 1 from a humanities or social science prof) plus any other LORs you might want considered. Some medical schools require a LOR from every PI you ever worked for. If you plan to apply any of these schools, you will need to submit PI letters to the committee.

You will also need to submit a Health Professions Questionnaire, a CV, your MCAT score(s), your personal statement, your transcript and have an 30-60 minute interview with committee.

In mid-August, the Health Professions Committee will send a recommendation packet directly to AMCAS or AACOM. In turn AMCA or AACOM will send that packet to those schools you’ve applied to.

Information about committee letter process here:

[Health Professions : College Center for Advising Services : University of Rochester](Applying to Health Professions Programs : University of Rochester)

You will not be able to see/review the committee letter before it’s sent. Like all LORs for medical school it’s confidential.

UR requires anyone requesting a committee letter to have a minimum cGPA/sGPA of 3.0. Applicants who don’t meet this minimum will be asked to defer their application until their GPA improves or until they have completed a grade-repairing grad program.

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RE: GPA calculations. The D will be counted for all MD programs. The D will not be counted if you do better on a retake for DO programs.