Please first confirm with your potential letter writers that they will be able to write you a strong and positive letter of recommendation. Once you have confirmed with them that they are willing to write you a letter, you may add that person as an evaluator. Fill out an "Evaluator Profile" to enter his/her name and contact information.
Guidelines
Once added, an email is automatically sent to that letter writer with the guidelines for composing a letter of recommendation, as well as a link to upload a letter directly to your student profile. Review the guidelines. This is a good reference for students to know the qualities that are valuable to be expressed in letters.
Minimum requirements
Most medical schools minimally require to have at least 2 letters for recommendation from science faculty and one from a physician. The OSU pre-medical committee requires this minimum in order to use the committee letter system. You should have a minimum of four letters of evaluation total. Other letters can come from supervisors, employers, volunteer coordinators, or other faculty.
Please be sure to monitor your letters as they arrive in your Health Professions Portal.
Notify the pre-med committee coordinators (premed-committee@oregonstate.edu) once all of your letters have been received.
Committee letter
A committee letter is written by a student's primary advisor (usually the major advisor). The committee letter is a cover letter that gives an overview of your application, adding insight and additional information (that is why it is SO important for you to stay in touch with your pre-med advisor). Medical schools value committee letters. It serves to provide highlights and context to the student's letter package submitted as part of the medical school application. The committee letter file includes the committee letter and all of your other letters of evaluation from doctors, faculty, employers, etc. To be eligible for a committee letter, you must have the minimal letter requirements stated above, as well as a minimum GPA of 3.2 and MCAT of 500.
Please be sure to tell the pre-medical committee coordinator(s) who your committee letter writer is, but do not add them to your letter portal on your own. The coordinating pre-medical committee advisors will do that for you as part of their process. Please note that writing your committee letter is at the discretion of your advisor.
Signature page
Students who go through the OSU system to assist with collecting and submitting letters of recommendation for medical school applications will need to complete a signature page for the Statement of Understanding to allow the release/discussion of your information and Statement of Confidentiality indicating that you understand and agree to the fact that the letters of evaluation on your behalf are confidential. Students will receive this form when they meet with a pre-medical committee coordinator to review their application status and open their "pre-med file" (see Step 3 below).
Summary of letters of evaluation requirements:
- Minimum of two science faculty letters
- Minimum of one physician letter
- Minimum of four letters total
- Must have 500 MCAT and 3.2 GPA minimums to receive a committee letter
Step 2: Should I apply to medical school now?
