@momworried
D2 attended a school that’s similar to the your son attends. Her school pre-med committee says the say thing, but there’s bit asterisk to their claim.
At D2’s school, anyone who has 3.0 or above GPA can ask for a committee letter, but the committee will strongly discourage anyone they feel isn’t a strong candidate from applying during the review process. (Mostly by saying they cannot provide you with the school’s strongest endorsement–which is basically the kiss of death for your med school application.) Most students get the hint and voluntarily withdraw their letter request.
So there are ways to discourage weaker applicant’s from applying even though school policy says anyone can get a committee letter.
In the school’s defense, I will say the health professions office does make suggestions to those students they feel are subpar on how to beef up their application and encourages them to try again in the future.