November 6 & 12, 2008: Opening Applicant Meetings
Novemeber & December, 2008: Initial Requests for Letters of Recommendation
December 12, 2008: Health Professions Committee Application available online
January, 2009: Health Professions Committee Applications accepted (online & in person)
February 9, 2009: Committee Interviews Commence
May, 2009: Final Requests for Letters of Recommendation
May 29, 2009: Health Professions Committee Applications - FINAL DEADLINE, 5:00 PM
June 19, 2009: Letters of Recommendation - DEADLINE!
June 26, 2009: Final Day for Committee Interviews (HPCA must have been handed in by 5/29)
Members of the Health Professions Committee are responsible for interviewing and drafting Health Professions Committee letters for applicants to health professions schools. In addition to Dr. Verrier and Ms. Kirby, the Committee is made up of faculty from Kreiger School of Arts and Sciences, Whiting School of Engineering, the School of Medicine, the School of Public Health, and various administrators at Homewood. About half of the applicants are assigned to Dr. Verrier or Ms. Kirby to serve as their Committee member with the remainder assigned to other Committee members.
The Health Professions Committee Application is your "internal" application to health professions school that provides your Health Professions Committee member with information pertinent to writing your Committee Letter. It is a customized Microsoft Word document with expandable fields. All students who participate in the Health Professions Committee Process must complete a Health Professions Comittee Application.
The Health Professions Committee Interview is scheduled following your being assigned a Committee member at some point between February and June. Committee interviews end on June 26.
The Health Professions Committee Letter ("Committee Letter") is the comprehensive letter written by your Committee member to accompany your letters of recommendation to health professions schools following your Committee Interview. Its is typicially 3 to 4 pages in length. A letter can take up to 10 hours to write and edit. It is a distinguishing feature of the application for applicants from Johns Hopkins.
The Health Professions Committee Packet ("Committee Packet") is made up of the Committee Letter and individual letters of recommendation submitted on behalf of the applicant. The Committee Packet is forwarded to medical or dental schools.
Most professional school admissions committees, including all medical schools, place a fair amount of emphasis on the comprehensive evaluation provided by Hopkins. The Admissions Committees are very interested in learning more about you as a person and this letter helps present you in as positive a manner as possible. It is designed to be a comprehensive picture of you as an applicant. The Committee Letter may hold more or less weight depending on the type of professional school to which you apply.
The first step is to attend one of the two mandatory Initial Applicant Meetings, either November 6 or November 12. If, by chance, you were unable to attend one of these meetings (e.g., abroad, you are a graduate not in Baltimore), you must formally notify send an email to preprofessional@jhu.edu so that we can have a record of your initial intent to apply. We will follow-up at a later point in November with a clarification of the instructions provided to prospective applicants at the the Applicant Meetings.
In order to be scheduled for a Committee Interview, you must submit materials to the Office as follows:
ONLINE: Send the Health Professions Committee Application and a copy of your resume to preprofessional@jhu.edu
DELIVER IN PERSON: Come by the Office to drop off a paper copy of the Health Professions Committee Application, an "unoffical" copy of your Johns Hopkins transcript, and your $80 fee.
Interviews are held anytime between February 9 and June 26. Remember, the deadline for Health Professions Committee Applications is May 29. Students who will not be in Baltimore during May and June must have their Committee Interview during the spring semester and submit their Health Professions Committee Applications by the end of March.
Following your interview and when all of your recommendations have been received, your Committee Member will write your letter, focusing on the following:
AN INTRODUCTION, outlining important aspects of your background and any early influences that impacted various decisions and direction in your life.
YOUR ACADEMIC BACKGROUND, focusing on your academic strengths and accomplishments, including research
YOUR RELEVANT EXPERIENCES, focusing on your involvements, activities, and interests that demonstrate your versatility, depth, and your commitment as a candidate
A SUMMARY/CONCLUSION, that attempts to capture your strengths and unique qualities as a candidate for a career in the health professions
Selected strong comments from faculty and others who have written letters of recommendation for you are excerpted and placed in the Committee Letter. Remember, all of your letters of recommendation are attached to the Committee Letter to form your Health Professions Committee Packet.
You must begin requesting your letters of recommendation at the end of the fall semester in order to insure that you have a complete compliment of recommendations by the letter of recommendation deadline. All letters of recommendation are due at the Office of Pre-Professional Programs and Advising by June 19. You are responsible for following through on all of your recommendations. This means that you will be contacting the faculty or others who agreed to write for you and ask in a polite manner for them to submit the letter by the June 19 deadline. You must keep in close contact with either Mrs. Krause, Mrs. Sanders, or Mrs. Harding in the Office of Pre-Professional Programs and Advising to inquire as to the status of your letters. We also ask that you remind those individuals who are writing letters of recommendation for you to submit an electronic copy of your letter as a Microsoft Word document via the instructions on the waiver form; this aids the Committee Member in writing your Committee Letter. If you are having difficulties securing a particular recommendation, you should contact Mrs. Krause, Mrs. Sanders, or Mrs. Harding for advice.
Typically a Committee Member will need three weeks to write your letter. However, some Committee Members will not complete the letter until all of the recommendations have arrived and have been forwarded to them. It is to your advantage to have your interview in the spring or early summer. It is to your advantage to have your letter written and ready to mail by July.
This “interview” will, in many respects, be different than an interview at a medical or dental school. I would suggest that you review your autobiography, your personal statement, and your responses to questions on the Health Professions Questionnaire. The Committee Member is trying to do his/her best job to represent you as a candidate for your chosen profession. They have lots of information about you and now want to have a chance to get to know you in person.
We are going to do our very best in the Office to assign students to Committee Members as expeditiously as possible. If you need to be assigned very early in the process (e.g., during the spring semester), you will need to submit your Health Professions Committee Application and associated materials during the spring semester. Please be patient with this process.
No. We cannot accommodate requests for you to be assigned a particular faculty member, physician, or senior administrator on the Committee. We have to take into account a number of factors in assigning applicants to Committee Members and cannot accommodate students’ requests.
Choosing whether or not to waive your rights is a personal decision that you must make on your own. It is important for you to be aware that you make the choice regarding waiving your rights and that it is a voluntary decision. A range of sources reviewed regarding this issue appears to favor that you waive the right, the assumption being that the letter may be more candid and that you had confidence in your selection of your recommenders.
If you are currently a junior and are planning to apply following your senior year, you should go through this process next year. If you are a junior or a senior and are planning to apply for entry two or more years following graduation, you should go through this process as a senior. It is important to request letters of recommendation from faculty and mentors at Johns Hopkins during the final phase of your Hopkins education. It is advised that you have your Committee Interview during this cycle and have the letter in your file. Pre-Professional Programs and Advising will insure that the letter is current when you apply and reflects all of your achievements and experiences. Alumni are always encouraged to come back and access the services of the Office of Pre-Professional Programs and Advising.
COMPLETING THE HEALTH PROFESSIONS COMMITTEE APPLICATION
These portions of the application will collect personal data, educational information, and results from the MCAT or other tests to be used in preparation of your Health Professions Committee Evaluation. You will need to calculate your science GPA.
You are required to submit a minimum of three letters of recommendation and a maximum of six. These letters of recommendation will be included in their full, original form in your Committee Evaluation. We recommend at the minimum two academic letters of reference from faculty (or graduate teaching fellows if necessary) at Johns Hopkins. It is strongly recommended to have at least one from a faculty member in the humanities or social sciences. Others who may write useful letters include research advisors, administrators, faculty advisors, athletic coaches, supervisors of campus or summer jobs, and those who have known you in volunteer positions. Provide recommenders with the Instructions to Writers of Letters of Recommendation to Health Professions Schools and the Recommendation Waiver Form. The Health Professions Committee reserves the right to determine whether all letters are appropriate for inclusion in the Committee Evaluation. We ask writers of letters of recommendation to submit their letters by June 19 if at all possible.
These are short answer questions and should be answered concisely. Again, try not to replicate information provided elsewhere.
The Post-Secondary Experiences section of this questionnaire parallels the section on the AMCAS application designed to give you the opportunity to include in your application any work or extracurricular activities, awards, honors, or publications that you would like to bring to the attention of the health professions schools. Below you may enter 15 experiences. Enter only significant experiences and, to the best of your ability, enter them in chronological order. Remember that medical schools are more interested in quality than quantity.
Please submit to your resume to Preprofessional@jhu.edu. This should be the same resume you use to request letters of recommendation. Here are some suggestions... Your resume should follow standard format. A sentence or two describing the nature of the experience should accompany each activity or experience and it should indicate start and end dates. Try to limit your resume to 1-2 pages and focus on your post-secondary experiences. Some suggestions for sections include:
- Honors/awards/recognition
- Community service/volunteer (position, dates, brief description)
- Research/lab experience (position, dates, brief description)
- Leadership—not listed elsewhere (optional)
- Employment (position, dates, brief description)
- Extracurricular/hobbies/avocations (optional)
Please email (to preprofessional@jhu.edu) and print an unofficial transcript and drop it off at the Office when you deliver the hard copy of HPCA and the $80 processing fee.
LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION
- Choose your recommenders carefully. A person who knows you well can write a more substantial and helpful letter than someone who hardly knows you. In choosing between a person who taught you in a small class versus someone with a famous name or title but who cannot write a personal letter, choose the former. It is REQUIRED to have at least one recommendation from someone who has taught you in the sciences (2 recommended), and it is RECOMMENDED to have one from a faculty in the humanities or social sciences. Others who may write useful letters include research advisors, administrators, faculty advisors, athletic coaches, supervisors of campus or summer jobs, and those who have known you in volunteer positions. Letters from graduate student instructors are acceptable.
- When asking for the letter, make an appointment to meet in person if at all possible. Take your resume and transcript and papers which you have written for the instructor (preferably the copies which contain their comments) with you and be prepared to talk about your future goals and past achievements. If an individual agrees to write on your behalf, present him/her with the Instructions to Writers of Letters of Recommendation and the Recommendation Waiver Form. If the person is off campus, it is also helpful to provide the writer with a stamped envelope addressed to the Office of Pre-Professional Programs and Advising.
- Make sure that you allow the person the option of saying NO. You want to have strong letters and if a person is somewhat uncomfortable writing for you or doesn’t have enough time, it is likely that the result will be short and weak. It is much better to have someone be honest with you at the start, so that you can find another referee who will be more enthusiastic. You can determine this by asking the person if s/he feels comfortable writing a strong letter on your behalf.
- Give your referees plenty of advance notice and time to write a good letter of recommendation (a month or even two). Make sure that your referees know that we need to have your letters sometime in the spring or early summer, and that there is a June 19 deadline. If your letters are not received by June 19, it may delay the processing of your Committee Evaluation.
- Be sure to give your referees friendly reminders about your letter, but do not pester them. Remember they will be writing a letter reflecting on many aspects of you—which includes behavior and interpersonal interactions!
- Inform your writers when you have decided where you will be attending school and thank them again for their assistance and support.
The Waiver Form is a document provided by the Office of Pre-Professional Programs and Advising that will allow you to waive your right to inspect the contents of letters of recommendation written on your behalf. You must complete this form and provide it to each of your recommenders. Waiving your ‘right to access’ means that your letters will remain confidential, and you will not be privy to their contents. Admissions officials may give more credence to the content of a letter that is confidential. If you choose NOT to waive your right, you will have access to the contents of the recommendation.
SENDING OF COMMITTEE PACKETS
Committee packets will not be officially released to health professions schools until the student submits materials to the Office of Pre-Professional Programs and Advising. Please note the following caveats:
- Hand deliver or email a copy of your AMCAS/AACOMAS/AADSAS to the Office of Pre-Professional Programs and Advising.
- Please note that the Health Professions Committee Evaluations can only be sent for the purposes of application to health professional schools.
- We submit letters to most medical schools using Virtual Evaluations, a secure, web-based system through which health professions advisors can transmit letters of evaluation to health professions schools.
Complete the Master List of Schools checking all the medical schools and/or MD/PhD programs to which you are applying. Add schools to the master list if they do not use the virtual evaluation system. See mailing request section for instructions to have recommendations mailed to the school(s).
For students using the Health Professions Committee, there is a flat $80.00 processing fee to cover costs associated with this process. For those individuals who are not eligible to use the committee process, we offer a credential service and serve as a repository for recommendations. There will be a $60.00 fee for this service and the mailing procedures are the same. The fee must be paid before any mailing requests are completed.
If you have any recommendations that you want Express Mailed, Federal Expressed, etc., you are responsible for obtaining the envelope(s) and paying the post office directly for postage. The addressed stamped envelope(s) should then be brought to our office with the completed mailing request (see Mailing Request section for instructions on mailing requests). If you request recommendations to be faxed, there is a $10 fee for each recommendation packet.
Your Committee Letter and individual recommendations will be transmitted electronically through a system called Virtual Evaluations - a secure web-based system for transmitting letters of evaluation to health professions schools. You must submit a Master List of Schools and have checked off each school that you would like to have access to your Committee Letter. For schools not participating in the VE system, you must address a mailing envelope, which can be obtained through our office. If you receive additional recommendations, after your Committee Letter has been completed and uploaded, the additional letter will be sent as a supplemental letter through U.S. postal service and you will be responsible for addressing the additional envelopes for each school on your master list. The virtual evaluation system will only allow us to upload once.
Envelopes will be provided by the Pre-Professional Office and you will address one envelope for each school on your Master List of Schools. There are labels and addresses available in the Pre-Professional Office for most programs. If you are out of town and are mailing in your fee and master list of schools, you should include mailing labels for each school on your list. We will affix the labels on the envelopes for you.
M.D./Ph.D. applicants should use the addresses noted on the M.D./Ph.D. application. M.D. applicants may need to send to schools not using Virtual Evals. In many cases this address differs from the medical school admissions office address.
Once your Committee Letter is completed and a copy of your AMCAS/AACOMAS ID is in your file, your recommendation packet will be sent to all schools listed on your Master Mailing List. However, Mayo Medical School, University of California-Los Angeles, University of California-San Francisco, University of California-San Diego, University of California-Irvine, and the University of Hawaii require that your secondary be completed prior to mailing your recommendation packet. Therefore, you must inform us and submit a written request for us to mail your letters to these medical schools, after you have completed your secondary application. You must add to your Master List any additional schools not originally checked off on your master list. If you are not available to be here to add it yourself, you must submit a request in writing, and we will add it for you.
Please make your request to mail your recommendation packet in writing. If you are out of town, requests must be made in writing. You may fax or e-mail your requests. Please follow-up by calling the Office to confirm that your request has been received.
