Junior Year Preparation
A letter from the chief advisor:

Dear Student:

For most schools the application process begins about 18 months prior to the beginning of medical school. The Skidmore Health Professions Advisory Committee begins working closely with students seeking admission during fall semester of their junior year to plan carefully for the work to be done during spring semester of their junior year (or one year before candidate plans to apply).

The Health Professions Advisory Committee will write a confidential, composite letter of recommendation on your behalf. To aid the Committee in writing an appropriate letter, we will need the following information from you.

1. Provide the Committee with three to five recommendation letters from professors and health professionals (who are not on the HPAC) who know you well and can present specific information about you as a student and as a potential health professional.

2. Fill out the AMCAS form (download from www.aamc.org.) whether you are applying to medical schools, dental schools, veterinary schools or another health profession program. The AMCAS form organizes background information about you in a way that the Committee finds particularly useful. Include a current copy of your transcript. You may also use the Interview Application Form.

3. Write an essay articulating your reasons for wanting to become a health professional. If you are typical, the essay will be difficult to write and it will go through several revisions before you finally submit it as part of your application. This is an extremely important writing assignment and should be high on your list of priorities. If you are serious in your desire to attend a health-professional school, you should complete the first draft during the December/January school break.

During spring semester, you will take the admissions/aptitude examinations required by the health professional schools.

These are multiple choice, standardized examinations at a much higher level of difficulty than the SATs you took for college admission and you will be taking them in competition with a much more select group of high-achieving students. You will need to score above the national average on this exam in order to get early interviews next fall. The exams require serious preparation on your part in the form of review of your basic science courses and of practice tests. You might also consider taking a preparatory course in addition to your own studying. There are several study guides readily available (e.g. Barron, Kaplan, American Association of Medical Colleges, Princeton, Betz). You should begin your study for the exam during the December/January school break when you are more likely to have blocks of free time. The importance of this exam cannot be overly stressed. Admissions committees usually give the results great weight in determining which candidates will be interviewed. Registration materials for these exams are available by mid-February on the individual web sites.

The Committee will interview you in preparation for writing its recommendation letter. If you plan to request an interview, you need to complete a file by April 15th. Your file should contain an Interview Application Form including a draft of your personal statement (or other health professions application form), your most recent Skidmore transcript, MCAT scores (if available) and at least three recommendation letters. The Health Professions Advisory Committee Administrative Assistant will maintain your file for the Committee and you should contact her by early April to request an interview.

Finally, it is unwise to postpone taking this examination or interviewing with the Committee until fall semester, senior year. Some health professional schools have rolling admissions and by the time your application is read, more than half of the places in their entering classes will be filled. You would be competing for fewer places and have to be a very strong candidate in order to win one of them. Admission is very competitive and all schools urge that materials be submitted early.

I, or one of the other Committee members, would be glad to answer any questions you might have about the application process. We are all ready to support you in any way that we can.

Sincerely,

Bernard Possidente
Chief Health Professions Advisor