Pre Health

Pre Health professions timeline

First Year:

• Join the Pre-Health Listserv.

• Complete and submit an Initial Interest Form.  (This is usually done during the Summer Planning Conference before your Freshman Year.)

• Meet with the Pre-Health Advisor. Be sure to sustain a relationship with the Pre-Health Advisor throughout your entire academic career.

• Find out about volunteer opportunities at hospitals, nursing homes, and medical clinics.   Make plans to volunteer, as your schedule permits, after your first semester in college.

• Look through a sample MCAT to find out what the test is like.

• Save your textbooks and notes from your science courses. This will be helpful in studying for the MCAT.

• Read novels, essays, newspapers, and journal articles to develop your vocabulary, speed and comprehension.

• Look for research opportunities and internships.

• Visit professors during office hours with relevant questions about the course and related material. Develop academic interests and share them with your teachers.

• Keep a list of your health profession and related activities.

• Once you have developed a relationship with a professor and completed your course, ask for a letter of recommendation. See Guidelines for Recommendations. You can begin your Pre-Health file at any time.

• What are you doing this summer?  Check out our list of Pre-Health related summer program.

Sophomore year:

• Surf the Internet. Contact medical schools and ask them to send you information.

• Start a journal. Write about your volunteer, research, and classroom experiences. Remember, soon you’ll be writing a personal statement and going to interviews; it will be helpful to flip through your journal to quickly refresh your memory.

• Make sure you will be able to finish the pre-medical requirements prior to taking the MCAT and interviewing with the Pre-Health Committee.

• Take a good look at yourself. Are you an excellent student? Do you thrive on patient contact? Do you like a hectic, challenging lifestyle? If not, perhaps you should reassess your goals now. Your Pre-Health Advisor is there to listen. If you answered "yes," then continue reading.

Junior Year (or the year that you apply)

• Submit your Pre-Health file: résumé, personal essay, and at least three (3) evaluations (2 from Science professors and 1 from either a Humanities or a Social and Behavioral Science Professor). You must submit at least a note of confirmation, if not a full letter of recommendation from your supervisor, if you are or have done research and/or volunteer work. Submit a photograph, completed Grade Point Average Calculation Sheet, Request for a Committee Evaluation, Authorization and Waiver Form, and Schedule Card. See Tips on the Résumé and Essay. DEADLINE: FIRST MONDAY IN FEBRUARY!

• During March and April interview with members of the Advisory Committee. No interviews are given in the summer or fall. See General Advice about Interviews.

• In the spring, register for and take the MCAT, DAT, or OAT. NOTE DEADLINES! Podiatry and osteopathic schools require the MCAT. Veterinary schools require the GRE, VAT, or MCAT. When you take the test, please indicate that your score should also be released to us.

• Complete application for medical, dental, veterinary, or other health profession schools. See professional school websites for the latest information on the application process. Application packets or cards to request the common applications used by medial, osteopathic, dental, and podiatry schools are available in ASC/US usually by the end of April.

• Order medical, dental, veterinary or chiropractic admission requirement handbooks if you wish. The new edition of the medical book is published each May. The new edition of the dental book is published later in the summer.

• Check out websites for schools to which you may wish to apply.

• Other applications: Most schools that do not participate in a centralized application service will not send you an application prior to June 1, and few will not send one until the end of the summer. Once received, complete those and submit as required.

• To have Transcripts sent to the application services and to individual schools which request them, order directly from the Registrar’s Office (CC B25) in May or June. You may submit an order prior to the end of the spring term, but indicate that the request should be held until spring grades have been recorded.

• If your spring term transcript is wrong, contact the instructor involved to have the error corrected as soon as possible.

• Results of the MCAT, or OAT will be sent to you approximately six weeks after the test. MCAT Additional Score Report forms are used to have your scores sent to additional non-AMCAS schools to which you are applying.

Summer after Junior Year

• Complete the applications early to receive best consideration. If your supplementary applications are complete by early September, you are in good shape. Early acceptance allows for early application for financial aid.

• Early Decision applicants should notify us by July 1 concerning their intentions so that the evaluations may be prepared and ready to mail in a timely fashion.

• Submit a signed Active Record Sheet to the pre-health secretary listing all schools to which you have applied or will be applying. For each school to which your evaluations will be mailed, please submit an addressed (typed), stamped business-sized envelope. (Put 2 stamps on envelopes to ensure delivery). You should request that evaluations be mailed ONLY after schools have requested them. We will mail evaluations only (not transcripts, essays, photographs, personal checks, or application).

• The Committee evaluation is completed by the end of June. The Narrative portion of the Committee Evaluation is confidential, unless you did not waive your right to review on the Authorization and Waiver Form.

• Whether returning to school or graduating, please keep the Pre-Health Advisor informed of your current address for mailings, etc.

Senior Year

• Please keep your Pre-Health Advisor informed of any acceptances, rejections, or withdrawals.

• If you in a "hold" category at the end of the fall, you may want to send photocopies of your transcript and/or additional evaluations. You may call schools occasionally to ask about the status of your application. Particularly in the spring semester after you have applied, you should not remain passive. Keep in touch with the Pre-Health Advisor.