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Pre-Health Sciences Programs  >  Applying  >  Requesting Evaluation

Request for Evaluation by Faculty -- Instructions

PLEASE READ AND SAVE THESE INSTRUCTIONS

The form "Pre-Health Letter of Recommendation Request Form" is to be completed online by all Creighton students who are applying to Medical or Dental Schools and may be used by students applying to schools in other health related professions such as Chiropractic Medicine, Optometry, Physicians Assistant, Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy and others (if your desired program is not listed, please contact the Letters of Recommendation staff members for assistance). Normally evaluations are requested during the spring semester of the year preceding that in which the applicant will enter a professional school, e.g. during the junior spring semester.

  • Select at least three, but rarely more than four, faculty members you had as instructors in an academic course, preferably ones who know you well. Most medical schools (including Creighton's) require that at least two be in the natural sciences and at least one in the social sciences or humanities. One should probably be in your major. Some schools further specify who should write the letters (e.g. some require that a letter be from a professor in your major). Try to arrange for a group of evaluators that will be suitable for all of the schools to which you will apply.

  • Seek the chosen faculty members' informal consent to evaluate you. Have a conversation with each evaluator about your professional interest and preparation. Ask what information would help them. Some evaluators may request a copy of your application, transcript or Advisement Report, and most recent semester final grade report. Tell the evaluators that they will be informed as to the process for submitting their letters. If you do not plan to waive your right to later read the letters, ask your evaluators if this is a problem for them. Some evaluators (and most professional schools) prefer that the student waive their right to access letters, and the vast majority of applicants do so.

  • Ordinarily, do not include persons, even faculty, who did not have you in a course, unless they have appropriate information to add (e.g. a work supervisor). Coaches, counselors and others such as medical or dental alumni who are well acquainted with you but may not know of your academic abilities should be encouraged to write a separate letter addressed to the Office of PreHealth Advising to be included with the composite evaluation. If a letter is appropriate only for a specific school, ask the evaluator to send it directly to that school.

  • Complete the "Pre-Health Letter of Recommendation Request Form" form accessed below. When you have filled in all the required information, select "Save and List Recommendors" at the bottom of the form. You will be asked to "digitally sign" your request, including certifying your wish to waive (or not waive) your right to view your letters of recommendation.  More information about this decision is provided on the form.

  • Since Creighton University subscribes to Virtual Evals for uploading to schools, and is charged for this service, the Advising Resource Center must charge $20 per profile (a different profile is needed only for a change of type of school to which one is applying, for example, both medical and dental would be 2 profiles).  Please pay this fee by mailing or appearing in person in the Chemistry Department Office (Hixson-Lied Science Building, Room 268, Omaha, NE  68178).

  • As you fill in the request form, consider the following points:

    • Fill in your netID, year of expected entrance to the pre-health program for which you are applying, and the service you are using.

    • If you know your Application Service ID Number (e.g., AMCAS or ADSAS or AACOMAS ID number), please enter it.  If you don't know it yet, you may leave it blank, but you must be sure to update it in the Student Dashboard (available via a link from an email message sent to your Creighton University email account after your initial request has been submitted).

    • For Medical School applicants, you must also create a letter packet (or committee letter) in your AMCAS application, and update your AMCAS Letter ID number in the Student Dashboard when that information becomes available.

    • Indicate whether or not you are applying for a campus letter through the PMED program.  This question has no relevance to applicants for dental and osteopathic schools, so they should simply choose No Campus Letter.

    • Indicate whether or not you waive your right to see the letters in the future.  It is highly recommended that you do waive your rights.  More information about the implications of not waiving your rights is available on the form.

    • Enter the information about the faculty members who will write the letters.  For Creighton faculty members in our system, only the first name, last name, and department are required.  If the system cannot find this faculty member, you may be asked to provide additional information.  For recommendors outside Creighton University, please provide as much information as you can, including external email address, title, institution, and a phone number where this information can be verified.

    • Schools will not be listed on this form.  They will appear on your Student Dashboard form (accessible via a link in an email message sent to your Creighton University email account) once your fee has been paid.
  • The Letter of Recommendation service will contact the faculty and obtain the required information. When all evaluations have been received, the information will be compiled in a manner that in no way changes the evaluations. Each evaluator's ratings and narrative comments will be transmitted in their entirety and clearly identified as being from that individual evaluator.

  • It is the applicant's responsibility to initiate the process sufficiently early and to monitor the process. The Student Dashboard (available via a link on an email message sent to your official Creighton University email account) will provide you with a way to monitor your letters, and to see which recommendors have completed the process.  You may send reminders via the Student Dashboard, remove recommendors, add a recommendor, choose schools to upload to when complete, and update your profile.  It is highly suggested that you save your link to your Student Dashboard as a bookmark or one of your favorites the first time you access it.  If you lose the email, you can regain access by going to the Student Dashboard Restore Access form.
     
  • When you see a status of "Uploaded" on your Student Dashboard, please inquire at your designated schools to be sure that the composite letter was received.

  • These evaluations will be used for no other purpose than in connection with your application to professional school(s).

  • The composite evaluations are kept on file for five years.

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