/Division of Undergraduate Education
Undergraduate Academic Advising

Pre-Health Advising

Letters Of Recommendation (LOR) for Doctoral Programs

Interfolio Process

Starting on January 1, 2024, recommendation letters for pre-health students will be handled through Interfolio, a well-recognized document management service. We think that you will be pleased with the control that this gives you over your recommendations, and using Interfolio might even save you some money. Even though Interfolio is easy to use, there are some important details you need to know as you start using the new system.

Rather than having your individual letters of recommendation (LOR) sent to the pre-health email, you will be working with Interfolio to create an account to store and/or deliver your LORs when you are ready.  Interfolio is able to offer a longer time period for storage of your LOR and there is no cost to you until you are ready to have your LOR sent to the schools you select. This change came after the Office of the Provost made the announcement that Stony Brook University is shift away from providing committee letters and focus our efforts on other resources to support our students’ success when applying to these programs.  

  • You can create a free Dossier account to request and store your letters.
  • You can then upgrade to Dossier Deliver for $59.99* (when it’s time to send the letters of reference to your schools of interest).  (*this cost is based upon available data on 10-12-23

When you upgrade to the Dossier Deliver service, you receive 50 deliveries electronically or by mail. Your paid subscription includes guaranteed quality checks of letters of recommendation before delivery. You also receive notifications when letters are sent. You can send your materials to application systems including AMCAS, AACOMAS, AADSAS, PostbacCAS, and LSAC.

Source: Interfolio

  • Step 1: Create a Dossier or Dossier Deliver account on Interfolio. 
  • Step 2: If you already have letters on file with Stony Brook, you must complete this Google Form . There are a few steps in this process which will be emailed to you after you successfully submit your request via the Google Form. Once you have completed the required steps, our office will upload these letters to your Dossier / Dossier Deliver account per your instructions. 
  • Step 3: If your recommender is going to submit a letter after December 31, 2023, you must provide them with Dossier / Dossier Deliver instructions.  Our office will no longer be involved in saving or sending LOR on your behalf.

AAMC Letter Writer Portal

As an alternative to Interfolio, applicants who are looking to apply for the upcoming cycle and beyond for medical school (MD) should familiarize themselves with the new AAMC Letter Writer Portal that was recently announced. The portal offers:

Frequently Asked Questions

Please refer to these directions from Interfolio Dossier, and you can watch these video tutorials that explain step by step instructions.

Yes, if you have a finalized Committee Letter within the past 5 years in your Stony Brook file, you can ask us to have that Committee Letter transferred as well. You will be able to give us permission in this Google Form starting Jan. 1, 2024. However, no updates or modifications will be made to any Committee Letters.  It would be wise to gather more recent letters from recommenders if you decide to use an old committee letter. 

Create a Dossier/Dossier Deliver account and follow these directions to have your recommenders upload their letter.

We will hold letters for 5 years on file. After 5 years you will not be able to access any letters that were sent to the university. This includes individual letters of recommendation and committee letters. 

In fact, Stony Brook is joining other leading universities that have also shifted away from committee letters to more comprehensively support students in their application process, and assist them in identifying recommenders who know them well and have closely observed their academic and professional strengths. 

More Questions?

For questions about my letters of recommendation already in my pre-health Stony Brook file,  please write to prehealth@stonybrook.edu.  (We will not be able to answer Dossier or Dossier Deliver questions. See Dossier and Dossier Deliver contact information below).  

For help regarding Dossier or Dossier Deliver, you can either send an email or contact Interfolio by phone: