Pre-medical committee formation

[cbrons]

Hey everyone, I'm part of student government here at my college and was wondering about pre-medical committees that write LORs for people at other universities. What are some of the requirements of your committee? (GPA, MCAT, shadowing hours, etc.) Links would be helpful as well. Do you think pre-med committees are beneficial or would it be better to have students just look for individual professors and other people to write LORs? What other functions does your pre-medical committee serve? (Setup shadow opportunities, MCAt study groups, etc). Finally, is your committee a general pre-health committee (nursing, pharmacy students, etc.) or just for med. school applicants?

Thanks, I've been considering meeting with our provost to get a committee started over here.

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[cbrons]

also how often do you meet with them?

 

[cbrons]

pwwweeeeezzeeee

 

[Golden Joe]

I'm interested in getting this accomplished when I get back to campus in the spring as well. Any help?

 

[searun]

Hey everyone, I'm part of student government here at my college and was wondering about pre-medical committees that write LORs for people at other universities. What are some of the requirements of your committee? (GPA, MCAT, shadowing hours, etc.) Links would be helpful as well. Do you think pre-med committees are beneficial or would it be better to have students just look for individual professors and other people to write LORs? What other functions does your pre-medical committee serve? (Setup shadow opportunities, MCAt study groups, etc). Finally, is your committee a general pre-health committee (nursing, pharmacy students, etc.) or just for med. school applicants?

Thanks, I've been considering meeting with our provost to get a committee started over here.

I attended a liberal arts college which has a pre-med committee. The committee consists of five faculty members. I was required to submit 4 individual letters of recommendation from faculty members, provide a transcript and my MCAT score, and then formally interview with the committee concerning my background, interest in medicine, and views of various health care issues.

The chairperson of the committee then wrote a letter evaluating me on behalf of the committee and comparing me to other med school applicants from my school. The committee letter is packaged with and references the individual letters of recommendation that were reviewed by the committee.

Fortunately for me, the chairperson of the committee was the chair of my departmental major, I spent a summer doing research with him, and I taught his son how to skateboard (I always knew that my skateboarding skills would come in handy some day). I often ate lunch at his house. Yeah, he liked me, alot. I got into my top choice med school and have a scholarship that covers almost all of my tuition.

Most med school admission comittees will require a letter from a pre-med committee unless your school does not have one. I am a big fan of pre-med committee letters because it helped me so much in obtaining multiple acceptances, including my dream school. A strong letter is very helpful for the applicant. But conversely, a weak letter is probably the kiss of death.

I could contact the chairperson of the pre-med committee at several respected colleges or universities in your area and ask for suggestions on the nuts and bolts of establishing a committee. I also would speak with the chairpersons of several of the science faculties at your school to see if one of them would work with you to create a committee at your school.

Good luck.

 

[Bacchus]

There is no GPA, MCAT, or intra-University GPA requirement for any of our students to apply. The committee consists of one person who is also the interim dean of the Arts and Sciences College. There is no interview. She requires 6 letters of recommendation from faculty members on your behalf along with a questionaire to be submitted. A composite letter is formed and uploaded to Virtual Evals. The 6 individiual letters are made available as well. There is also an insert to explain the grading scheme and your "ranking" at the University. There is no charge for any service except if they are holding an outside letter for you. The charge is $0.42 or whatever the charge of postage is. Provide an addressed envelope and the letter will be sent.

 

[ButImLETired]

I also went to a mid-size (~1200 students per class) liberal arts college. Here's how it works:

the premed committee is made up of the premed adviser and a bunch of faculty members from the basic sciences. On the year of application, I had to send them a minimum of 4 LORs from whomever I wanted (with at least a science faculty member and I think at least 2 faculty members in total), any transcripts from other schools I'd attended, my resume (and a list of all the EC's I'd done at school added to it) and a rough draft of my PS. I then picked a member of the committee to interview me. I interviewed with him in May (~1 hour interview asking me about stuff that had come up in my transcript, my EC's, my life story, my motivations for medicine, my PS, my LORs- anything at all) and he wrote a draft of my letter, including all of that information. He then met with the full committee where my letter was read out loud and edited, and the committee also added objective data about the school: how I stack up next to other premeds, to what extent they recommend me, etc. That was all done in about July. They uploaded my letter AND the individual LOR's to VirtualEvals, and that was that.

I think that covers it....

 

[Golden Joe]

Thanks for the help!

 

[cbrons]

/bump

 

[ami1983]

i went to a large public university. we have a pre-medical office that writes a cover letter for our LORs- they don't make an independent assessment of the student. the cover letter simply states the requirements for the letters and certifies that they are confidential. we have to talk to one of the advisors in the office prior to getting the cover letter, and for cover letter to be written you have to have 3 academic letters, 2 of which are from science profs. you can have however many other non-academic letters you want. the advisors also look over your application and read your PS prior to your submitting you application, if desired.

 

[DrYoda]

The silly idea of a pre-med committee has thankfully not yet spread to my university.

 

[cbrons]

The silly idea of a pre-med committee has thankfully not yet spread to my university.

it is silly but most of my state schools prefer you get an Lor from them. also, i would like to see more people from my rural school who are interested in other health careers get some decent guidance as to the reality of the admissions process.