Committee Letter

Priority Deadline for First Time Applicants: March 1, 2013 by 11:59pm
Priority Deadline for Reapplicants: May 1, 2013 by 11:59pm
Final Deadline for All Applicants: June 3, 2013 by 11:59pm
*Please note: the 2014 Pre-Health Packet is now available on the forms page.

The University of Maryland Reed-Yorke Health Professions Advising Office (HPAO) offers a credentials service to University of Maryland students and alumni who aspire to attend Medical, Dental, Optometry, or Podiatry school. There are two components to the service: the Committee Letter and the Credentials Forwarding Service.

Committee Letter

What is the Committee Letter?
Who is eligible for the Committee Letter?
How do I request a Committee Letter?
What is a complete pre-health packet?
What is the difference between priority and final deadlines?
Do I need to have taken the MCAT/DAT/OAT in order to submit the Pre-Health Packet?
What if I submitted a Pre-Health packet previously but never applied to professional school?


What is the Committee Letter?

The Committee Letter is a form of evaluation used by the HPAO to assess individuals who are applying to Medical, Dental, Optometry, or Podiatry school. The Committee Letter should be requested the year in which you plan to apply to professional programs. The Application Cycle year refers to the year in which students would matriculate, or begin, Medical/Dental/Optometry/Podiatry School.

The Committee Letter reflects on the following:

  • Academic information
  • Family and basic biographical information
  • Exposure to health care, patients and the clinical setting
  • Community service
  • Research
  • Work experience
  • Challenges and personal responsibility
  • Personal passions, talents, skills
The Committee Letter is drafted as a result of interactions with the HPAO advisors, information collected in the Pre-Health Packet, and a mock interview. Students wishing to utilize the Committee Process are expected to work closely with the HPAO and have sought out individual advising from an HPAO advisor on at least one occasion. If you have never met individually with an HPAO advisor at any point, that will be noted in your Committee Letter. The Committee Letter incorporates all of the above elements and introduces the Turtle (explanations of special programs, rigor of courses and load, etc.) This letter will accompany your submitted individual letters of recommendation to the professional schools. Receiving a Committee Letter neither means that you will gain admission to medical or dental school, nor conversely, if you do not utilize this service, that you will not get in. Many schools, however, do expect students to have a Committee Letter if such a service is available on their campus. Plan ahead and be aware of the deadlines! No exceptions will be made to the Pre-Health Packet deadlines. Expect the process to take a minimum of 12 weeks from the time you submit your completed packet. Priority applicants, please note that no Committee Letters will be forwarded to the application services before July 15.

[return to top]

Who is eligible for the Committee Letter?

Eligible students are: currently enrolled degree-seeking undergraduate students, UMD alumni, and Science in the Evening Program students with a minimum of 24 credits of completed UMD basic science course work. Non-degree seeking post-bacc students are not eligible.  (Students who enrolled in SIE prior to Spring 2013 will be grandfathered in under the old 16 credit policy) Degree-seeking post-bacc students (non-SIE) must have declared a major and be working toward completing specific degree requirements and not just pre-medical requirements to be eligible - 24 credits of completed sciences required. Transfer students to the University of Maryland must also have the minimum of 24 credits of sciences at UMD before being eligible to utilize the Committee Letter process. Eligible students will also have completed, with a grade of C or better, the following required courses: 2 courses in biology with a lab; 2 courses in general chemistry (with labs); 2 courses in organic chemistry (with labs); 2 courses in physics (with lab-pre-dental students excluded as PHYS is not on the DAT). All of these courses must be completed by June 1 of the summer in which you plan to apply. 

How do I request a committee letter?

Students are required to submit a Pre-Health Packet (details below) the year in which they plan to apply to Medical, Dental, Optometry, or Podiatry school in order to receive a Committee Letter. Please note that HPAO deadlines often occur prior to primary application services (AMCAS, AACOMAS, AACPMAS, AADSAS, OPTOMCAS) becoming available due to the required processing time.

The first step in requesting a committee letter is submitting your non-refundable payment and completing the Pre-Health Packet , which can be found on our website in mid-December for the upcoming cycle. Please see the full timeline for deadlines. Once this has been submitted, an advisor will review it, provide you with some feedback by email about your application and list of schools, and invite you to schedule a mock interview. You must wait to receive the advisor e-mail before you may set up an interview. After that, interviews with committee members will be offered in the following manner: 

Interviews will be arranged with candidates based on their availability, the availability of the Pre-Med Committee members and the timeliness of the submission of the Pre-Health Packet. Students who meet the priority deadline will continue to have priority in the interview and letter completion process.

Once the interview is completed, the interviewer will forward his/her notes to the HPAO. Priority letters will be drafted, but will not be finalized until spring grades are in, test scores are received, all letters of recommendation are in and the common application has been fully processed.

[return to top]

What is a complete Pre-Health Packet?


Our packet must be complete; the Committee will neither accept nor review incomplete packets, and packets that remain incomplete at the June 3 deadline will not be eligible for the committee process.

A complete application includes:

For Priority Students
(Committee Letter guaranteed by August 1 if the following is complete)

  • Complete Pre-Health Packet form, filled out in Adobe Reader 11 only, including:
    • Part One: Student Information Inventory

    • Part Two: Resume, Personal Statement, Self Reflection
  • Appropriate payment ($70 for First-Time; $20 for Re-Applicants)
  • Official transcripts (including UMD transcript; can be mailed to HPAO or hand-delivered)
  • Activated veCollect account ($20 one-time fee)
  • MCAT taken by the June test date; DAT or OAT taken by July 15
  • Letters of recommendation - due by June 3. Additional letters - from summer experiences, etc. - may continue to be submitted until July 15. No Committee Letters will be sent out until all expected letters are received, the Credentials Form is received and the veCollect Quiver is locked
  • AMCAS, AACOMAS, OPTOMCAS or AADSAS application submitted and fully processed by July 15 and released to UMD prehealth advisor within the common application
  • Mock interview scheduled and conducted in a timely way
For June 3 Students
  • Complete Pre-Health Packet form, filled out in Adobe Reader 11 only, including:
    • Part One: Student Information Inventory

    • Part Two: Resume, Personal Statement, Self Reflection
  • Appropriate payment ($70 for First-Time; $20 for Re-Applicants)
  • Official transcripts (including UMD transcript; can be mailed to HPAO or hand-delivered)
  • Activated veCollect account by June 3 deadline ($20 one-time fee)
  • MCAT, DAT, OAT may be taken at any point acceptable to the professional schools in order to still meet their stated deadlines (committee letter will not be completed until scores are received, so earlier is better). Many US allopathic medical schools do not accept a post-September 1 first MCAT attempt.
  • Letters of recommendation - due June 3. However, additional letters - from summer experiences, etc. - may continue to be submitted until August 31.  No Committee Letters will be sent out until all expected letters are received, the Credentials Form is received and the veCollect Quiver is locked
  • Students with completed AMCAS, AACOMAS, OPTOMCAS, AADSAS, or AACPMAS applications will receive priority. Application must be released to UMD prehealth advisor within the common application


[return to top]

What is the difference between priority and final deadlines?

Priority deadlines apply to those students who submit a complete Pre-Health Packet by March 1 and wish for their committee letter to be complete by August 1. First-time and re-applicants who wish to have their personal statement reviewed by an HPAO advisor must meet the priority deadline. Re-applicants may submit a complete Pre-Health Packet by May 1 to gain priority status and guarantee a complete committee letter by August 1. The final deadline, June 3, is the absolute latest date that the HPAO will accept a new Pre-Health packet. Packets on the final deadline must be complete and submitted by 11:59pm. Incomplete packets turned in at this point will not meet the deadline. Applications received electronically after 11:59pm will not meet the deadline.

If a priority candidate does not meet the criteria listed above (under what is a complete Pre-Health Packet) by the stated deadlines, their letter will still be processed, provided they meet all the final deadlines. However, they will no longer be considered priority, and thus are not guaranteed a committee letter by August 1.

[return to top]

Do I need to have taken the MCAT/DAT/OAT in order to submit the Pre-Health Packet?

No. Please indicate the date you are planning to take it within the form. But your Committee Letter will not be completed until the score is received.

What if I submitted a Pre-Health packet previously but never applied to professional school?

All students expecting a Committee Letter to be written or updated for the current application year need to submit a Pre-Health Packet. Students who withdrew from a previous cycle will need to submit a packet for the current cycle in order to have the letter completed. For students who previously submitted a packet but never completed the mock interview, you will be required to submit a new First-Time Applicant Pre-Health Packet. For students who did complete the mock interview, you will be considered a Re-Applicant for HPAO purposes (whether you ended up applying or not) and will be required to submit the Re-Applicant Pre-Health Packet.