Accepted Admissions Blog

Collecting letters of recommendation is a stressful part of the medical school application process. To make it easier for you to decide which letters to collect, I did the research! (You’re welcome.)

There is an exciting development this year—there are no longer any medical schools that require a pre-health committee letter of recommendation from your college campus. It is no longer necessary for you to participate in the often lengthy and stressful process that your pre-health advising office has to obtain a committee letter. Woohoo for you! Finally, some good news!

What Is a Committee Letter?

A pre-health committee letter is a composite letter of recommendation typically written by a school’s pre-health advisors and sometimes one or more additional faculty members who oversee premed advising. It differs from a regular letter of recommendation which is written by a single writer of your choosing. As I mentioned above, there are no longer any medical schools that require a pre-health committee letter, only schools that prefer it but do accept individual letters as well (see table).

Sixty-eight percent of all allopathic medical schools located in the continental U.S. do not have a preference for the types of letters you submit. Thirty-two percent of schools prefer the committee letter, but do not require an explanation if you use individual letters.

The Pros and Cons of Committee Letters

Pros of applying without a committee letter:

• You can customize your letter packet to each school.
• You can skip the step and process of obtaining a committee letter, which may include an application, interview and take a little more time to collect as the “committee” writes it based on your other letters of recommendation.
• The absence of a committee letter is not going to have any impact on your application at most medical schools.

Pros of applying with a committee letter:

• It can serve as an official endorsement from your campus, if your school provides committee letters only to students who meet specific criteria. Consequently, schools that require committee letters may view their presence or absence as an additional screening tool and a positive reflection on the quality of applicants who have them.

Cons of applying without a committee letter:

• While medical schools no longer require committee letters, some, as noted below, prefer them. For those schools, you may need to explain why you don’t have one when applying.

Cons of applying with a committee letter:

• If you send the committee letter to the AMCAS letter service as one packet, you will not be able to customize your letter packet for each school. Many schools have specific requests in terms of what types of letters they prefer to see and how many letters you can submit.

Medical Schools That Prefer a Pre-Health Committee Letter

As of March 11, 2022, the medical schools that prefer the pre-health committee letter this application cycle include:

• Albany
• Albert Einstein
• Central Michigan
• Columbia
• Cooper
• Creighton
• Drexel
• Emory
• Florida Atlantic
• Geisinger
• Harvard
• Hofstra
• Icahn
• Johns Hopkins
• Keck
• Loma Linda
• Louisiana State in Shreveport
• Loyola University Chicago Stritch
• Northwestern
• NYU Grossman
• Pennsylvania State
• Perelman
• Renaissance
• Rush
• Rutgers New Jersey
• Sidney Kimmel
• SUNY Downstate
• SUNY Upstate
• Texas A&M
• Uniformed Services
• Universidad Central del Caribe
• University of Alabama
• University of Arkansas
• UC San Francisco
• University of Central Florida
• University of Colorado
• University of Louisville
• University of Maryland
• University of Massachusetts
• University of Miami
• University of Missouri
• University of Oklahoma
• University of Pittsburgh
• University of Rochester
• University of South Alabama
• University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
• University of Vermont
• Wake Forest
• Weill Cornell
• Yale

*This data was taken from the MSAR in March 2022. Information can change, so check the schools’ web sites when you apply.

In my opinion, the pre-health committee letter simply serves as an additional hurdle for applicants to complete. It’s exciting to see that it is no longer required. I hope this information is helpful and will make the process of preparing to apply to medical school less stressful.

Check out our med school application packages for more info on how we can help make your entire application process less stressful while helping you get into medical school. Learn more here >>

Recommendation Letter Preferences By Medical School

* If a committee letter is used it will not count towards total number of letters. 

** Does not accept committee letters.

Related Resources:

• Navigate the Med School Maze: 12 Tips from Start to Acceptance, a free guide
• What Does an Excellent Medical School Letter of Recommendation Include?