The Pre-Med/Health Committee has been formed to help guide students interested in a Medical/Health career through the steps necessary to improve your odds of acceptance to Medical/Health schools. To achieve this goal, students interested in these careers will be required to complete specific steps in order to gain the support of the committee. The committee is not intended to prevent students from pursuing one of these careers, but to provide resources to better prepare you for your future.
What the Pre-Med/Health Committee will provide:
In conjunction with the student run clubs, such as Pre-Med Club, Pre-Dental Club, etc., the committee will bring in professionals to provide training and networking opportunities.
Through the committee, students will be able to request 'Committee Letters' which are requested by Medical Schools.
Committee members are useful advisors to help students navigate the process from the beginning of undergraduate school to application and interviewing for professional school.
Register for an account at VirtualEvals (https://collect.virtualevals.com/). You cannot do anything else until this has been done. You’ll have to pay a $20 fee per year to activate your account as well. Virtual Evals is a tool to be used to gather information as you progress through your schooling so that a high quality Committee Letter can be prepared when needed.
Fill out a self-evaluation form and submit it to one of the committee faculty members. The faculty member will upload it to VE Collect for you. This should be done by the second to last week of the each semester. This date may be earlier for your last semester if you are seeking a letter at an earlier date. Adjust accordingly. You can not continue to step #3 without completing this step. This step must be repeated every semester. The goal is for you to make yourself aware of your progress toward achieving your goal of attending a professional school.
Fill out the top portion of the faculty comment forms and turn them into any faculty members from whom you’d like an evaluation. You need to get these to faculty by the second to last week of the semester.
You also need to set them up as an evaluator on your Virtual Evals account, add a letter request from them, and then send the letter request…all from within Virual Evals. A video showing you how to do this is at: https://youtu.be/yXPsTNVXKDM
For more details about applying to Med School see this document: Requirements and Expectations for Medical School Applicants at AMU
The VECollect process isn’t very different than requesting letters of recommendation from faculty for other purposes.
You still need to formally ask a faculty member to fill out the form for you.
You should still provide those faculty member a copy of your resume so they have something to refer to when filling out the form.
This is not meant for you to request letters/forms from every faculty member. For example, if you did poorly in a course and have not had any other contact with a faculty member, it is probably best not to ask them to fill out the form.
You should notify the faculty that they will be receiving a separate request from VECollect if they agree to complete the form. Not all faculty will fully understand the process and you may need to explain it to them.
Once you have received confirmation from the faculty member that they are willing to fill out the form for you, you should then send them the link for submission by logging into your VECollect account and creating the request. The faculty member will then be able to submit the form directly to VECollect.
If for some reason you need a letter as well you can ask a faculty for that as well.
It is not typical for a non-university member (faculty, coach, etc.) to contribute to a committee letter. You would typically ask for a separate letter from them.
Committee members can fill out forms. The committee is just meant to be a guiding group, no conflict of interest exists.
Dr. Tony Barbosa (Chemistry)
Dr. Nicholas Curtis (Biology)
Dr. Stephen Cronin (Biology)
Mr. Jacob Blanchard (Biology)