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The Application Process

Premedical File/
Composite Letter of Recommendation

Most medical and dental schools require a composite letter of recommendation. Rather than having several recommenders send individual letters to each medical school, the Colby Health Professions Preparation Committee will write a single, lengthy, composite letter incorporating letters submitted by a variety of faculty and others on and off campus. For this purpose, each applicant must set up a premedical file.

Other health professions, such as veterinary school, physical therapy and physician assistant programs, do not require a composite recommendation letter. Instead, they employ (and prefer) a more conventional application process, in which letters from individual recommenders (typically 3, although this can vary) are sent in support of an application. Thus, for these fields, a regular Career Center reference file, rather than a specific premedical file, should be set up and maintained. Increasingly, these recommendations are submitted online, which requires the writer to submit the letter directly, rather than via the file.

Establishing a File

You should establish a file as early as possible before applying to medical/dental school. Forms to open a file can be downloaded. or requested from the Chair of the HPPC, Cate Talbot Ashton, in the Career Center. This will allow you to accumulate references from a variety of individuals in one place.

The premedical file will eventually contain the following items: (1) a copy of your academic record at Colby (which the Committee will obtain from the Registrar); (2) reference letters from faculty, staff, and others from on and off campus; (3) biographical information provided by you in the Personal Information Form and your resume; (4) admissions test scores; (5) a list of schools to which you are applying; and 6) your AMCAS/AACOMAS/AADSAS ID number and, if using AMCAS, your Letter ID (send us the letter form or just the number). Questions about the contents of your premed or pre-dental file can be addressed to Sheila Libby (premed@colby.edu); questions about your Career Center file can be answered by staff in the Career Center (career@colby.edu or 207-859-4140).

As a general rule, at the time that you ask the Committee to prepare a composite letter, you should have no fewer and no more than 4-6 recommendations from faculty, with at least 2 (but preferably more) from faculty in the natural sciences (on and/or off campus). If you have more than 6 letters, we will ask you to identify the 6 you want us to use. These are essential for documenting your intellectual and personal qualities in an academic context. The numbers of recommendations written from people other than faculty will vary widely depending on your particular extracurricular experiences. If you are applying to osteopathic schools, you may need a letter of reference from a D.O.

In seeking recommenders to write to your file, all of the following are relevant (in some cases the categories are overlapping): faculty in your major;faculty in the natural sciences, both at Colby and at any other institution(s) at which you have taken required or elective courses; faculty in the social sciences and humanities; medical professionals with whom you have worked, in a paid or volunteer capacity, e.g., a Jan Plan supervisor in a hospital or research center, the director of an ambulance service, the head of a dental lab, or a health professional who has supervised you in a clinic; researchers with whom you have worked, in a paid or volunteer capacity; administrators, coaches, and other College staff; and employers or work supervisors, both on and off campus. Remember, your goal is a minimum of 4 letters and a maximum of 6. You may need to be selective.

It is optimal to request a recommendation immediately after you have concluded a significant activity (or activities) with a recommender. This is especially the case if you will not work with that person again. For example, if you take a single course from a professor, and will not take another with that professor, you should ask for a recommendation at the end of the course. Similarly, if you serve an internship with a physician during Jan Plan or in the summer, and will not do so again with that individual, ask for a recommendation upon completion of the internship. However, if you plan to take more than one course with a professor, or to do an internship with the same supervisor on more than one occasion, wait until completion of the final event to seek a recommendation. Note: Be aware that all faculty take sabbaticals, and that some may move to other institutions, and plan your recommendation requests accordingly.

HINT: Stay in touch with people who write letters for you -- they can be tapped to write subsequent letters you may need and will remember you more clearly if you stay in touch with them.

It is your responsibility to seek any and all recommendations directly from potential referees, and to see that these recommendations are sent in a timely manner. You may download and print or send reference forms to give your reference writers that gives them details about how and where to submit their letters.

Recommenders on campus should provide both a printed copy (a signed original copy) and an electronic file copy via e-mail (premed@colby.edu). This will greatly facilitate the writing of the composite letter, especially by reducing the possibility of transcription errors. Letters and accompanying electronic copies should be directed via campus mail to: Health Professions Preparation Committee, c/o Psychology Department.

For recommenders off campus, the situation is somewhat different. Some of these individuals may want to send a recommendation directly to the medical schools at the time that you apply (especially if they hold the same degree for which you are applying). This is wholly acceptable, but it is your responsibility to insure that their letters are mailed in a timely fashion. You should offer these individuals the option of sending a single letter to your pre-med file. We will then either incorporate their comments into your composite letter, or simply attach a copy of their letter. Letters should be sent to: Health Professions Preparation Committee, 5550 Mayflower Hill, Waterville, ME 04901.

By obtaining recommendations from a variety of sources, we can describe your abilities and interests as comprehensively as possible. This is consistent with the current emphasis that professional schools place on students having a wide range of academic and interpersonal skills.

Required Forms

You must complete and return a Personal Information Form which may be download or requested from the Chair of the Health Professions Preparation Committee in the Career Center, plus a résumé, to the Health Professions Preparation Committee. These forms must be complete and up-to-date as of the time that you apply, and must be submitted before you ask the Committee to write your composite letter. We urge you to update this information as often as necessary. Reapplicants will be asked to provide an update on what has changed in the intervening period since the first applications were made.

Important: The Committee will not undertake the writing of a composite letter of recommendation until ALL of the specified recommendations and informational documents, as described above, are in your folder. It is your responsibility to be sure that your file is complete.

Also Important: If your file is complete and the Committee is able to write your composite letter over the summer, it will take approximately 3 weeks to get your letter completed. If your file is not complete until near or after Labor Day, the process may take up to 4-5 weeks to complete. Please plan accordingly.

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Admission Tests and Test Preparation

•Medical School: the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) is required.
•Dental school: the Dental Admission Test (DAT) is required.
•Veterinary school: most schools require the Graduate Record Examination (GRE); the Veterinary College Admission Test (VCAT) has been discontinued.

For medical school, it is advantageous to take the MCAT in the April prior to the summer in which you submit your applications. This is because most schools have a rolling interviewing and/or a rolling admission policy, i.e., first come, first interviewed/admitted. However, it may not be to every student's overall advantage to take the April MCAT if being adequately prepared is a problem or if you are retaking the MCAT later in the summer. You should consult with the premedical advisor about your particular circumstances.

Test Preparation: Whether or not to take a formal test prep course, e.g., from Kaplan or Princeton Review, is an individual decision. In our experience, there is a positive correlation between how a student has done on standardized testing prior to college, and how well a student does on admissions testing for the health professions. For example, if a student has had relatively weak performance on the SAT, it is probably a good idea to consider a test prep course. Moreover, many students, regardless of testing history, have benefited from formal test preparation.

The Princeton Review offers an intensive on-campus MCAT Review Course, beginning in February and concluding just prior to the April test date. The course includes full diagnostic testing, continued review of content areas, test-taking strategies, and three full-length MCAT exams. Contact Princeton Review directly for further information, including costs and scheduling at http://www.princetonreview.com/medical/testprep/ Kaplan also offers test-prep courses and can be contacted at http://www.kaptest.com for further information.

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Application Services/Individual Applications

Initial Applications

Most (but not all) health professions schools utilize a centralized application service rather than accepting applications directly from prospective students. Application materials can be obtained directly from the application service:

AMCAS (allopathic medicine) http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/
AACOMAS (osteopathic medicine), https://aacomas.aacom.org/
AACPMAS (podiatry), http://www.aacpm.org/apply/apply.asp
AADSAS (dentistry), https://portal.aadsasweb.org
VMCAS (veterinary medicine) http://aavmc.org/vmcas/vmcas.htm
TMDSAS (Texas Medical and Dental Application Service) http://www.utsystem.edu/tmdsas/
OMSAS (Ontario Medical School Application Service) https://compass.ouac.on.ca/shopouac/omsas_english/welcome.html

From year to year, various schools join, or drop out of, these centralized services. Up-to-date information in this regard can be found in the publications and websites on the Resource List.

The opening date varies for these application services. You must consult the appropriate service web site for details. Several open at one date, but do not allow you submit the application until a later date. Each service offers a downloadable instructions manual that is important to consult when you have quetions. There are closing dates as well, for the centralized application services as well as for individual schools.

It is to your advantage to submit your applications as early as possible. In our experience, this increases the likelihood of being interviewed. As noted above, most schools have rolling interviewing and/or rolling admissions. Moreover, since completing applications and writing letters are time-consuming processes, your fall semester will go more easily if the bulk of the application paperwork is completed during the summer.

Many professional schools have early decision (E.D.) programs. If you have a particular school that you strongly prefer and want to use this option, typically you must apply before September 1. However, if you are an E.D. applicant at one school, you cannot be an active applicant at any other school until you hear about your status--accepted or rejected--from the E.D. school. Thus, applying E.D. may put you a few months behind as an applicant at all other schools if you are not accepted in the E.D. process. Unlike college, very few applicants are accepted for early decision for professional schools and those are usually only the very strongest applicants. You can find information on specific schools and E.D. programs in the admissions guides noted in the Resource List.

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Academic Transcripts

The centralized application services require an official transcript from every college or university you have attended since high school. Please be aware that your Colby transcript does not necessarily include grades and/or records of courses that you have taken at other institutions.

To send a Colby transcript, contact the Colby Registrar’s Office. For off-campus study programs run by Colby in other countries (e.g., Cork) or in the U.S. (e.g., Pomona), your courses and grades are part of your Colby transcript. For other programs and/or courses taken away from Colby, it is your responsibility to see that the relevant transcript information is submitted to a centralized application service or to individual schools. This includes summer school courses, college courses taken while in high school, courses transferred from other colleges, and courses taken abroad, whether taught at a foreign university or by the staff of the American sponsor. You should consult with the Registrar to confirm what is, and is not, on your Colby transcript.

Transcripts must be submitted at the time you apply. You must make arrangements for this directly with the Registrar's Office at Colby and at all other schools.

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"The Essay"

Virtually all schools ask you to write a 1-page essay on why you want to pursue your intended profession. This is often the most challenging part of the application--it can be difficult to write about yourself, and there is a risk of using the wrong tone, i.e., of either overselling or underselling yourself. Moreover, professional schools view writing as an index of thinking, thus the essay is a key part of your application. As a general guideline for getting started, it may be helpful to approach the essay as if you were writing a recommendation for someone else whom you know well, emphasizing strengths as well as areas for growth. The essay typically discusses significant events that influenced your decision to pursue your intended profession, experiences that have reinforced that decision, and specific scientific-technical and interpersonal skills that you will bring to the profession. It is routine to seek advice or feedback from a Committee member or from another faculty member who knows you well. Finally, it is a good idea to have someone familiar with the writing of pre-professional essays read and critique it for both content and style. Your initial essay may be included in your online application service (the AMCAS, for example) -- be sure you consult the service instruction manual for information about the length allowed.

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Secondary Applications

Most schools will ask you to submit a secondary application. This often involves more essays. Schools will usually not look at your composite letter of recommendation until they have received your completed secondary application. Some secondary requests will come very soon after submitting your centralized application service application, others will come later. Typically, you will have to pay additional application fees to each school when you submit the secondaries. You should consider this in your application fee budget.

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Interviews

Most schools interview only those applicants whom they are seriously considering. Check specific information on individual schools in the publications noted in the Resource List. The content and style of interviews varies widely.

Probably what the interviewer(s) is(are) evaluating most is your motivation toward, and chances of success in, the profession, and your ability to talk intelligently with some degree of depth and enthusiasm. If the composite letter can mention your interests and experiences as catalogued on the Personal Information forms and on your résumé, this may help to focus the interview in a way most beneficial to you.

It is important to inform yourself about specific programs available at a specific school and inquire about them during your interview. Not only will you appear to be knowledgeable and interested, but also you will get a better sense of the school. Finally, it is a good idea to keep up with general current events by reading, e.g., Time or Newsweek, as well as with new developments in science and health, through journals available in the Science Library (e.g., Science, Nature, The New England Journal of Medicine).

For helpful tips in preparing for a medical school interview you may want to check out the Student Doctor website, http://www.studentdoctor.net/ which has excellent articles about preparing for your interviews and provides feedback from individual candidates’ interviews at most medical schools.

The expenses of interviewing (e.g., airfare, hotels) are borne by the applicant, except under special circumstances. You should set money aside in advance.

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Pre-professional Courtesy

Should you be accepted at more than one school, withdraw from the school(s) that you clearly have no intention of attending. If you are accepted at one school and want to hold on until you get an answer from another school that you prefer, this is reasonable. But tying up several places for extended periods of time is discourteous to all other pre-professional students. When you finally decide on a school, it is polite to write to other schools that have not yet notified you and ask them to remove your application from consideration.

Please keep Cate Talbot Ashton informed of your progress, in particular regarding interviews as well as acceptances, but also wait-list or alternate status, and rejections.