Committee Letter of Evaluation
In recent years many health professions schools have stated a preference for a summative Committee Letter of Evaluation in addition to individual letters of recommendation. This letter will be offered to qualified students applying to medical (allopathic or osteopathic), dentistry, podiatry, or optometry schools.
Eligibility
To be eligible for a committee evaluation, the following requirements must be met:
- GPA >3.4
- Be a Penn State Behrend student.
- Have considerable exposure to the healthcare setting (i.e., shadowing, clinical experience).
- Have your central application system (CAS) “Letter ID Number.”
- Have the results of your health profession's school admissions exam OR the scheduled test date.
Please note: The Pre-Health Committee will conduct interviews from March to the end of May.
If the student meets the eligibility requirements, a Committee Letter of Evaluation can be requested following the instructions below:
- You will need to fill out the attached form "Request for Faculty (Or Other) Letter of Evaluation." It is recommended that you request at least three academic letters (two science and one non-science) of recommendation and at least two letters from a healthcare professional. The referee will receive an email notification of your request; it is strongly encouraged to follow up with this referee and give a copy to the individuals you are requesting to write you a letter of support. Please have your referees email letters to [email protected]. All letters must be signed and on official letterhead. These letters will be used during evaluation by the Pre-Health Committee and sent along with your committee letter to each health professional school. Please note the following:
- Letters of reference should not be solicited from relatives.
- Since it is clear that most admission committees of health profession schools prefer confidential letters of recommendation and evaluation, you are encouraged to sign the statements that waive your rights of access to these letters. If you choose to retain your access rights, we must so advise the professional schools, and your letters will be viewed as not confidential.
- Faculty letters of evaluation can be requested and returned to this office at any time, even as early as your first year.
- You need to complete the "Request for Compiled Pre-Health Evaluation" and submit this to [email protected].
- Before you can receive an official Pre-Health Committee evaluation committee:
- You must complete the "Request for Compiled Pre-Health Evaluation" form.
- Have three letters of recommendation submitted to [email protected].
- Schedule a 30-minute Pre-Health Committee Evaluation; please email [email protected].
- The Committee will not send an evaluation letter to more than one type of health profession school during one application period. For example, you cannot request that your evaluation letter be sent to both medical and dental schools during the same year. However, we will send to both allopathic (M.D.) and osteopathic (D.O.) medical programs during the same year.
- On the “Request for Compiled Pre-Health Evaluation” form, some family background information is requested. Our committee requests this information because it is also asked by health professional applications and is a frequent discussion point during school interviews. Your inclusion of this information is voluntary, and our office will handle this information with sensitivity and confidentiality.
- This is no time to be modest in completing pages five and six of the request form. Medical schools and our committee are particularly interested in leadership experience, research affiliations, healthcare exposure, and volunteer work benefiting people, communities, and other worthwhile causes. As you may know, you must include similar personal statements on Health Professional School application forms. You can use the same statement from both forms. The information you give us on the request form is only for committee use, and the interview request form is not forwarded to medical schools. Our office will forward both the compiled pre-professional committee letter and the individual faculty/supervisor letters of evaluation to each health professional school listed.
Pre-Health Evaluation Committee
If you have any questions, you may contact the Pre-Health Committee at [email protected].
