Pre-Med Hopkins! Help! Help!

sakky
Sat, 25 Jun 2005 23:08:13 +0000

Hey, hold the phone now. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that the best JHU students shouldn’t continue to get one of those strong rec letters from Fishbein and company. I fully support that. I think that’s a great idea that boosts the odds for the top JHU premeds.

What bothers me is the policy that ALL JHU premeds, including the substandard ones, are forced to get a rec from Fishbein and company. I think that should be up to the student. If you’re a strong premed and you think you can get a super rec from Fishbein and you want to use it, then by all means do so. But if for whatever reason you don’t want to use the Fishbein rec, then you shouldn’t be forced to use it. JHU should just supply that student with a form letter then. Yeah, I agree, that form letter probably doesn’t look as good as a strong rec from Fishbein. But the point is that the student gets to choose which rec to present. You might say that the student is making a stupid choice, but hey, these are grown adults here, and they’re allowed to make choices that we think are stupid.

Personally, I think what should happen is that Fishbein and company should serve only in an advisory role. Form letters should be given to all JHU premeds, the way that Ivies do now. However, Fishbein et al should make themselves available to consult and review the candidacies of all willing premeds. Those premeds who are strong would be offered a strong Fishbein rec, just like what happens now. But the point is, there would be no coercion, or the appearance of coercion. Nobody would be forced to use a rec that they really don’t want to use. If a guy decides he really doesn’t want to use the Fishbein rec, why force him?



If such a letter was declared optional and or was replaced by an extra rec letter from a faculty member, trust me, med schools would notice as it is something that is expected.



This I find to be highly dubious. I agree that some med-schools, particularly the top med-schools, would probably notice. On the other hand, there are 125 certified M.D. schools and 20 or so certified OD schools in the US. I think we can all agree that not every one of them is familiar with the JHU recommendation process. The top schools that get lots of JHU applicants every year, sure. But the lower tiers? I don’t think so. I think it’s safe to say that some of those schools haven’t had a single JHU applicant in years. Some of the other ones may only get a handful every so often. So how familiar do you really think those schools are with the JHU process? Think about it, honestly, how many JHU premeds apply to, say, the Des Moines University College of Osteopathic Medicine every year? Probably not a lot. So if JHU were to start using form letters instead of the Fishbein rec, honestly do you think they would really notice?