At the beginning of this year, the HPAC conducts an informational meeting for all prospective preMeds, preVets, preDents, etc. During this meeting you will have the opportunity to fill out the Health Professions Interest Form, or you can do it online right now. Although this form doesn’t commit you to anything, it does put you on our mailing list for premed information that comes out from time to time. It will also give us the information we need to contact the Academic Advising office so they can assign you a secondary advisor from the HPAC membership.

During spring term, you should discuss, at your initiative, your progress and your sophomore-year registration plans with a Committee advisor. At this meeting you might also discuss premed requirements, development of a premed course of study, a tentative schedule for the next three years and a major and minor course of study. In considering what you will do during the summer you should explore work/volunteer opportunities in the medical area.

During fall semester, you should meet with your HPAC secondary advisor to review your progress. This advisor will look over your record, verify that you are taking the correct courses and try to give you a realistic appraisal of your chances for admission to a health professional school. You will be working closely with this advisor during your junior year if you continue as a pre-health professional.

In addition to working/volunteering in a medical area you should consider participating in research. Subscribing to medical student journals and reading books about medicine will also help to broaden your perspective on medicine. Students applying to the Albany Medical School Minority Student Early Assurance Program should initiate application procedures through the Committee in January.

Students who are preparing to apply at the end of the spring semester may request a full Committee interview and must submit the following material by mid-April: a completed Interview Application Form, three or more letters of recommendation from faculty members who have been your instructors (and are not HPAC members), and any other letters you wish to submit, [the letters of recommendation should be written by at least one faculty member in your major department and at least one natural science professor], a copy of your transcript, and an essay articulating your reasons for wanting to become a health professional. The entire Committee will review the material and will meet with you for an interview at the end of the spring term. At that time, the Committee will give you an indication of how strongly it will be able to support your application in its letter of recommendation. A spring interview and summer application is strongly recommended. Students applying in the fall will, most likely, be at a disadvantage because fewer places will be available.

During spring semester, you will take the MCAT, or DAT, or GRE, or OCAT or other appropriate test. NOTE: The MCAT exam will be offered at 22 different times during the months of January, April, May, June, July, August and September. The MCAT exam can be taken up to three times per year . Application forms may be downloaded directly from the individual web sites, many of which are listed on the Application Services page of this website. Scores for each time you take the test are sent directly to the health professional schools, so be well prepared. If you have difficulty with multiple-choice testing, begin as a freshman to overcome this problem.

Before you leave Skidmore College for the summer, prepare your AMCAS application and plan to submit it by mid-June. (Eighty percent of AMCAS applications are submitted by July 1 st .) You can access the AMCAS-E application form from the AAMC web site: www.aamc.org/students/amcas/start.htm. As soon as you receive your final grades for the spring term, send a copy of your transcript to the HPAC.

Upon request, the Committee will write its composite letter of recommendation if you have completed your part of the application process and submitted the necessary supporting materials (current transcript, completed AMCAS form, premed essay, three letters of recommendation, and valid MCAT or other required test scores). We will also need a signed Waiver Form for the file record. If you are applying to any schools that do not subscribe to the AMCAS Letter Writing Service, you should provide us with the complete mailing address as well as any special mailing instructions. HPAC does not subscribe to Interfolio or VirtualEvals, so any schools that use these letter services will need to be submitted by regular mail. We will try to send your recommendation letters before you return in September, if your file is complete and your request is received during the summer. Please note it usually takes 2-4 weeks to prepare a recommendation from the time of request, assuming your file is complete. Preparation times can also be affected by volume of requests, other faculty obligations, etc., so please plan ahead.

Travel to interviews and watch your mailbox.