Health Professions Recommendations Committee

• Completion of Intent to Participate form by Friday, September 15, 2023 by 5:00pm (the end of the third week of the Fall semester), submitted to the HPRC Dropbox (closed for 2023-2024 cycle).
• Minimum cumulative GPA 3.3 from ALL post-secondary institutions
• Minimum BCPM (Bio, Chem, Physics, Math) course GPA 3.1 from ALL post-secondary institutions
• Minimum 30 credit hours of classes completed at Benedictine University by the end of the academic year in which a letter is sought.
• Minimum 12 credit hours in BCPM courses completed at Benedictine by the end of the academic year in which a letter is sought, including at least one lab course.
• Interest in one of the following professions:
  • Medicine (MD and DO)
  • Dentistry
  • Pharmacy
  • Optometry
  • Physician Assistant
  • Veterinary
  • Physical Therapy
  • Occupational Therapy
  • Nursing
  • Podiatry
  • Chiropractic

Upon acceptance of the “Intent to Participate” form, a personal Dropbox folder is created for the student. The student will then be sent a personalized link to the folder, where they can upload completed files. However, they cannot see the contents of their folder; only the HPRC members can.

A completed application packet for the student includes all of the following:

• HPRC Application Form
• Personal statement (not a form; write this separately as a .docx or .pdf file)
• A recent professional photo (not a form; submit this separately as a .jpg or .jpeg file)
• FERPA Waiver
• Academic Honesty Waiver

There are two deadlines for submission of these documents through the provided Dropbox link:

• Priority deadline: End of the eighth week of the Fall Semester (Friday, October 20, 2023 by 5:00 PM Central Time)
  • The priority deadline will allow those students earlier access to interviews, thus maximizing their time to correct any deficiencies in their application.
  • Students are encouraged to submit a draft of their application by this deadline even if it is not complete
• Final deadline: End of the first week of the Spring Semester (Friday, January 12, 2024 by 5:00 PM Central Time)
  • The final deadline is strict! Any incomplete applications after that date will result in the student not being allowed to interview with the HPRC in the 2023-2024 academic year.

• • Students who still have incomplete applications at the beginning of the spring semester will be contacted by the HPRC Chair, reminding them of the final deadline.

If a student needs to obtain a committee letter prior to the end of the fall semester they are applying, the student may petition the HPRC Chair and the Director of the Pre-Health Professions Program for an expedited application process. In this case, the complete application is due by the end of the fifth week of the fall semester (Friday, September 29, 2023 by 5:00pm Central Time).

Students are asked to obtain a minimum of three (3), but no more than six (6), individual letters of recommendation (iLORs). Those three letters must come from a combination of two (2) science faculty and one (1) additional resource (not necessarily faculty) that can speak to the student’s non-academic qualities. This could be a clinician who supervised a shadowing experience, a direct supervisor of a clinical work experience, a Scholar’s advisor, a research mentor, a supervisor for a volunteering experience, etc.

If additional letters beyond the required three are submitted, they may come from other faculty, clinicians the student has worked or shadowed with, volunteer coordinators, etc.

**It is expected that you will ask those whom you are requesting iLOR’s from in advance if it is okay that they provide a letter for you.  If it is discovered that you did not do this, the HPRC may penalize your recommendation by one level.

For transfer students with < 30 credit hours of Benedictine coursework (in their first year at Benedictine at the time of submitting the “Intent to Participate” form), there is a slightly different iLOR requirement:

• At least one (1) letter from a science faculty member at Benedictine or at a prior institution and a letter from an additional resource that can speak to the student’s non-academic qualities should be submitted as part of the application process.
• By the end of Spring semester of the year the student applies, the student must ensure that at least two (2) letters from science faculty, including at least one Benedictine science faculty member, are included in their portfolio. These combined letters then must satisfy the requirements met by all Benedictine students (two from science faculty, one from an additional resource)

• All finalized applications will be available to all members of the HPRC. For each applicant, two (2) members of the committee will be assigned for primary review of the student’s application.
• These primary reviewers, along with the Director of the Pre-Health Professions Program, will conduct a personal interview of the applicant during the fall semester (“Expedited” and “Priority” applicants) or the spring semester (all other applicants). Applicants should check their Benedictine e-mail address provided to the committee for who they need to schedule interviews with and when.
• All members of the HPRC will review each student’s application file and primary reviewers’ assessments, and they will provide their own insights and collective committee decision at the committee’s meetings.
• The HPRC Chair will prepare a summary of feedback to each applicant after the committee’s review of the applicant is complete. This will be done via the Benedictine e-mail address provided by the applicant, with an invitation for a meeting to discuss further should one be desired by the applicant.

This is an open-ended statement where applicants tell us something unique about their background and about why they want to go into the profession of their choosing.  The statement should be about 2 pages, double-spaced, but no more than 4600 characters for most applications.

This is a chance to be creative and help a student stand out from other applicants.  We recommend that applicants share one or two interesting stories that helped confirm they are going into the right profession:  something that took place when they were younger, and/or something that they experienced through shadowing or working in your field.

Try to avoid clichés like “I like science” or “I want to help people”, as these won’t help a personal statement stand out from other applicants.

This is typically the most difficult part of the application for many students, so we encourage all applicants to start working on this early so you have time to prepare and review drafts.

**Need some help getting started and/or someone to help review a draft?  Make an appointment with Ms. Susan Roach, Literacy Learning Specialist, in the Academic Support Center by e-mail ([email protected]) or via Bookings at https://outlook.office365.com/owa/calendar/[email protected]/bookings/.

Interviews will be scheduled in a minimum of two blocks: those that made the “Priority Deadline” and those who submitted after this, but by the “Final Deadline”.

Those that meet the “Priority Deadline” will be interviewed in the fall semester prior to Thanksgiving Break, but all other students will be interviewed in the spring semester prior to Spring Break.

Depending on committee members’ preferences, some informal, preparatory interviews may start taking place in the fall semester for non-priority students, but the vast majority of interviews will take place in the spring semester.

Students will be asked to take part in three (3) interviews:

• A one-on-one interview with the Director of the Pre-Health Professions Program
• Two interviews with two randomly-selected faculty members of the HPRC
• Faculty and the Director of Pre-Health Professions Program are free to choose the format for the interviews that they wish.
  • Some of the interviews will be conducted in-person while others will be conducted virtually via Zoom.  Please check with your interviewer for the format of your interview.
• Although these interviews are meant to be mock interviews, the purpose of the interviews are to gather information about the student to help form a recommendation. Students’ interview performances will thus NOT be used in any way to influence their overall committee recommendations. However, students are expected to dress and act professionally in interviews with faculty as practice for formal professional school interviews.
  • Students are not required to dress formally for the interview with the Director of the Pre-Health Professions Program.
  • However, students are required to dress formally for the interviews with the two faculty members.
  • Students are encouraged to ask their interviewer for constructive criticism after your interview has ended.
• Students should be aware that being a “no-show” to any interview with no attempt to contact the interviewer(s) may result in their recommendation level penalized one level.

Interview Guidelines for Faculty Interviews

Think about what you would wear if you were going for a business interview.  This should help you plan your outfit appropriately.

For virtual interviews:

• Your webcam is expected to be on for the full interview.  If you are having technical issues with your webcam, please let your interviewer know so you can reschedule if needed.
• Please be aware of your background, both in terms of appearance and noise.
• Clean up clutter, do not have any ceiling fans on (or anything that makes a constant motion), and minimize background noise from anyone else living with you.
• Do not use a “cute” filter that doesn’t look professional.

• After the interviews are complete, the Director of the Pre-Health Professions Program and two faculty interviewers will complete a preliminary review and recommendation. The other voting faculty members on the HPRC will read through the application and personal statement and complete a preliminary review and recommendation based on their reading and experiences with the applicant.
• The full HPRC will then be convened, where the committee will discuss their findings and assess the student for a recommendation level (Outstanding, Strongly Recommend, Recommend, Recommend with Reservation, Do Not Recommend).
• Once the HPRC has made a recommendation, the HPRC Chair will contact the student for a short debrief via e-mail to go over the recommendation level and suggestions for improvement.
• The student is then asked whether they wish to receive a letter from the HPRC. If they confirm they do, the student will then be asked to identify where they would like the letter submitted and to submit a formal request to the HPRC Chair.
• Students must give a minimum of 3 weeks’ notice for where and when the letter must be submitted by. Requests for letters on any shorter timeframe cannot be guaranteed.
• To request a letter, students must complete and submit the Request a Letter and Release of Rights forms, sending them to the Coordinator for College of Science and Health and the HPRC Chair.

Final approval of committee letters will occur once all of a student’s application packet and iLORs are submitted, ant the HPRC has met to discuss the recommendation.

Letters will be primarily written by the faculty who interviewed the student as part of the process, though the Director of the Pre-Health Professions Program and Chair will also participate. As letters are finished, they will be circulated among the entire HPRC for review and editing.  The HPRC Chair then confirms that all iLORs have been submitted, at which point the letter is given final approval.

Once final approval is confirmed, the letter is sent to the designated place(s) the student identified and the letter is then archived should the student need an updated letter. In most cases, the committee letter will be sent as a packet along with the iLORs the student included, unless the student requests otherwise.

If you have previously interviewed with the HPRC over a year ago and would like a new or updated HPRC letter, you may request one without having to interview again in most cases.

Simply do the following:

• Complete and submit the Request a Letter and Release of Rights forms, sending them to the Coordinator for Pre-Health Professions and the HPRC Chair.
• E-mail the HPRC Chair with any updates to your clinical, volunteering, academic, and/or other relevant experiences.
  • In most cases, this e-mail will be sufficient for what we need to write your letter.
  • If it has been a significant length of time since you originally interviewed with the HPRC and/or you have significant changes to your background and experiences, you may be asked to complete a follow-up interview with the Director of Pre-Health Professions and/or the HPRC Chair or submit a new application as a new applicant. The HPRC Chair will advise students in this case how to proceed.
  • If we feel that your updates may affect your recommendation level, your information will be shared with the HPRC members to see if anyone would want to change their recommendation levels. If so, the HPRC Chair will let you know of the changes via e-mail.
• If your individual letters of recommendation are more than 12 months old, you may be asked to request updated or new letters.
• You must give a minimum 3 weeks’ notice for all letter requests. Any requests on a shorter time line cannot be guaranteed.