General Considerations on Applying to Professional Schools

1. General Considerations on Applying to Professional Schools Some things to pay attention to and some observations on the 2011 application cycle. Medical School as the example this evening.

2. Where we are now in the application cycle for the 2011 entering class. • NUMBER of candidates is up, especially for Osteopathic schools. In 2009 entering class, acceptance rates nationally were ~42% of allopathic applicants and ~36% of osteopathic applicants. You can review data at amcas and aacomas websites. • To date, our office has prepared, processed and forwarded ~200 applicant letter sets for medical and dental schools so far! • Still conducting PSU Committee Interviews. (fyi, Jefferson was interviewing candidates into April!) In August, 2010, applicants were still being taken from the “wait lists”! • Last year, of nearly 220+ PSU applicants through 213 Whitmore 187 matriculated to a D.O. or M.D. school. That’s an ~83% acceptance rate for 2009, an unusually good acceptance rate last year! • BUT you say: “Its getting late and I’ve heard little or nothing!” • Hershey: Over 7K applicants for 2009; so far, about 20% of anticipated interview invitations have gone out for the 2011 entering class. (2010 data not reported yet) • Jefferson: Over 9.7K applicants for 2009; so far only about 23% of their anticipated interview invitations have gone out for the 2011 entering class. (Ibid.) • Bottomline: It is still early in review and interview cycle of the admissions process!

3. What to be doing this year if applying for the entering professional class of 2012 • Fall semester 2010: • Get the Committee Interview Packet, on-line at www.science.psu.edu/premed/ OR hard copy at 213 Whitmore. • Solicit faculty letters of recommendation! What you should strive for is a set of letters that can provide a broad perspective of you as a candidate. • MCAT preparations and plan to sign up. Calendar is on aamc.org • Continue gaining relevant experience, healthcare settings, etc.! Attend “Open House” events at schools; meet with representatives from professional schools as opportunities come up! • Spring semester 2011: • Take MCAT (when truly ready) and • FOLLOW-UP on LORs! • As best you can, continue gaining related experience, healthcare settings, etc.!! • Spring/Summer 2011: • Primary application to AAMCA and/or AACOMAS in June/July ideally. • NOTE: the Penn State Committee letter is NOT part of the primary application. Do NOT delay your primary application until your Committee interview. • You call to Schedule Committee Interview (mostly in the summer) when your Biographical sketch and at least 3 letters are received at our office. We anticipate scheduling will begin around mid-April. • We will NOT call you to schedule an interview, we only call if there is a change. • You prep and send out Secondary Applications. • Fall 2011: • Monitor status of applications. Do not confuse deadlines of primary vs. secondary applications! See Schools’ websites or MSAR! • Did we mention the importance of gaining related experience, healthcare settings, etc.? • Pay attention to current events, news, etc. pertaining to your career goals. Topics for interviews at professional schools!

4. To do in AY 2010-2011 • Optimize your MCAT prep by whatever study modes work best for you, such as Kaplan or whatever else! Many preparation aides; e.g. the aamc.org Official Guide to the MCAT Exam. • Review content areas of the test and plan your elective courses so you’re not taking MCAT prematurely. • Strive for best outcome the first time! This is not a test to take lightly or to “see how I’ll do, then really prepare right for the second time.” • ALL SCORES are reported/ some schools average! E.g., Jefferson averages.

5. Letters of Recommendation (LOR)We strive to mirror 2 core science/ 1 non-science faculty letters … as schools expect. • Q: But my science classes are so large? • A: yes, but you can still talk to the professor and if she/he is willing, make a short appt. for a conversation regarding you and your preparations for post-graduate school, provide a resume. Your upper division science courses tend to be smaller with more interaction. • Q: But she/he really doesn’t know me… • A: keep in mind what the schools expect to see and plan to round out your letter set with other faculty who know you from smaller classes, e.g. upper division specialty courses such as Medical Microbiology; Histology; Advanced Immunology; Physical Chemistry as examples. Research mentor’s LOR is helpful, too. • Q: What about non-science classes…they are so large, too? • A: Your ENGL 15 (30) or 202; CAS 100 are examples of smaller classes to consider. • Suggestion: Avoid getting letters solely by a “graduate assistant”. A letter co-written with the professor in charge of a course inherently has more credibility. • Suggestion: Since you are applying from Penn State, the Admissions Committees are expecting most (if not all) of the faculty inputs to be PSU faculty. Beyond the minimum of 3 letters, do consider “other writers” for letters #4 to #6 (max.).

6. More on Letters… • Q: My professor in xyz is not in the science college, is that okay? • A: My best advice is to stick with at least 2 from ECoS faculty AND solicit writers from other colleges (if you wish) up to max of six individual letters. • Our local Request Form will be modified a little for next year. How so? • We will be encouraging two simple things for your letter writers: • 1) do their letter on “letterhead” and not the back of the request form; • 2) date & sign their letter! Unsigned letters can cause needless delays. • This will make prep of letter sets faster for our staff and helps to legitimize the letter sets being forwarded on your behalf! • Waive/ do not waive right of access to letters?? We will always urge you to solicit confidential letters of recommendation by signing (and date) the “waive” box. • Do NOT sign both waiver boxes. Do GIVE the request form to your letter writer, to be returned to us with their letter. • Electronic transmission of letters to our office is suboptimal at this time and creates an additional layer of prep, processing and follow-ups causing delays. • At this time, we anticipate using VirtualEvals for PSU Committee Letter transmittal next year. • We do not use Interfolio and we can not do on-line, fill-in forms!

7. Even more on LOR and apps… • NOTE on osteopathic schools – They typically require or recommend a LOR from a D.O. Get to know a D.O. and spend some time with her/him discussing the profession and shadowing! • - If you are applying ONLY to osteopathic schools, this can easily be included in the letter set going from the Premed office. • - However, if applying to both D.O. and M.D. schools, we encourage you to provide your D.O. letter writer with addressed, stamped envelopes for the osteopathic schools. • Special Forms: You need to also provide any special “letter request form” that some schools have, e.g., Michigan State University Osteopathic School has this in their secondary application and they are very particular about the LOR process! • ** THIS IS IMPORTANT: PSU “Committee letter” is identified on your primary AMCAS application, but they are NOT submitted to AMCAS as part of the primary application. • Per AMCAS definitions, our office facilitates a “Committee Letter”, including the individual faculty letters. It is not a “Letter Packet”, by the AMCAS criteria. • Do NOT delay submitting your primary application by waiting for your Committee Interview. Get the primary application (and ALL college transcripts) submitted to AMCAS and AACOMAS as soon as you commit to the application cycle!

8. Biographical Sketch Mania! • We have hundreds of candidates to track. Attach a recent small photo! Without one, it may be returned to you. Please, do NOT make our work more difficult! • Neat and readable!! This also reflects on your professionalism. Really! • Waive/ not waive access: we recommend “waive”/ sign and date!! This tells schools that your materials will be prepared as “confidential”, which is their expectation! • Draft Personal Statement. It’s your chance to tell a reader who you are and why this is the right career track for you. Get objective readers! • The Tentative List of schools is just that – tentative and intended to assist advising at the time of our interview. • Q: Must I have my MCAT results before the PSU Committee Interview? • A: It helps tremendously in preparing the most informed letter of evaluation on your behalf if we know the MCAT performance, too. IF you plan to retake the MCAT, that is important to state at the interview, too. • If you indicate plans to retake the MCAT, do know that some schools may be puzzled if later you don’t retake the MCAT. That alone can delay your application’s review. • Be realistic about your MCAT and GPA as part of your credentials!

9. After everything is in their hands … • Updates of germane information are important to do: • E.g., fall grades (an unofficial set via email is okay); • Any awards (Grammy, Oscar, Emmy, Peabody, Music Video Awards, Country Music Awards, etc.), • Research publications and/or presentations, • Noteworthy activities not previously reported, • Plans to retake MCAT. • It is important to continue to show interest with the school(s) of greatest interest to you. Just don’t overdo it! • General Questions???