Peace Through Education

Letters of Recommendation

Two types of letters are typically required for application to medical school; individual letters of recommendation from faculty members, employers, or other individuals, and a committee letter of evaluation from a premedical advisory committee. You ask for individual letters by contacting letter writers yourself, and ask for a committee letter automatically when you submit your materials to PMAC. Letter writers upload letters to PMAC and primary application services, using instructions that are generated by "letter request" procedures built into those application services.

Individual Letters of Recommendation

Applicants should check with medical schools about specific recommendation letter requirements. We recommend three individual recommendations, ideally including at least one from a science faculty member. Those with research experience are strongly advised to include a letter from their research mentor. Individual letters of recommendation should not come from immediate family members or close relatives. AAMC provides detailed guidelines for letter writers. The full document can be found here.

Letter writers will submit two copies. One will be uploaded to the University of Arkansas premed advisory committee. The other copy will typically be uploaded to a primary application letter service (AMCAS, TMDSAS, and AACOMAS have their own) or, in rare cases, sent directly to a medical school.  

  

Instructions for individual letters of recommendation (updated 5/2022)

 

1. To PMAC:

The PMAC application form will ask for the email addresses of your letter writers. When you submit the form, letter requests with upload instructions will be sent to those email addresses. 

If you want to send letter requests out before submitting your PMAC form, add the email addresses and save the form as a draft. You will then see a button to click to send the requests.

2. To medical schools:

a) participating in AMCAS letters:

 Have your personal letter writers upload or mail their recommendations directly to AMCAS, using the AMCAS letter form.

 b) not participating in AMCAS letters:

Have your personal letter writers send their recommendations to each medical school directly. Some medical schools may not request a letter until after the secondary application.

c) Texas med schools using TMDSAS:

Have your letter writers upload letters to PMAC as described above. These individual letters can be uploaded along with the committee letter in the "HPE Committee Packet". 

d) osteopathic medical schools:

Browse here for instructions.

Committee Letter of Recommendation

The chair of the University of Arkansas Premedical Advisory Committee conducts committee meetings to produce a  letter of evaluation from the University of Arkansas for each applicant. The letter is based on the submitted application materials, a PMAC interview, the PMAC's overall familiarity with the applicant, and the individual recommendation letters.