HPAC Committee Letter 2027 Matriculation

Purpose: A Committee Letter is a letter authored by a pre-health committee or pre-health advisor and intended to represent your institutions evaluation of you. Although not required for admission to medical or dental school schools value a Committee Letter and expect to receive one from Hamilton College. At Hamilton the Committee Letter is a composite letter that includes:

• a two-page narrative letter written by the health professions advisor with input from the Health Professions Advisory Committee; and

• your letters of recommendation (LORs)

The Health Professions Advisory Committee (HPAC) will prepare a Committee Letter for all students who apply to medical/dental/vet school as long as they have taken at least four semesters of science at Hamilton and follow the process for obtaining a Committee Letter. Candidates are not pre-screened and there is no minimum GPA required for consideration by the HPAC.

Alumni of Hamilton College who decide to pursue medical dental or vet school after graduation may also get assistance from the Health Professions Advisor and if they have completed half of the required science classes at Hamilton they may also request a Committee Letter.

In order to receive a Committee Letter candidate files must be completed by May 1 of the application year. A completed file consists of:

Self assessment

Work and activities sheet

Personal statement draft

Resume

1 hour interview

All letters of recommendation.

Please note that Health professions schools prefer confidential letters of evaluation/recommendation i.e. those that are written with the knowledge that the applicant will not have access to the letters.

The committee letter is written to provide context to your experiences not to reiterate the things you will write in your AMCAS/AACOMAS/AADSAS/VMCAS application. The document creates a narrative that surrounds your experiences and incorporates the individual feedback from your recommender and your own voice from your self assessment to provide contextual information to what is presented by you.

Letter Guidelines: As part of the medical school application process you will need to solicit four-to-six letters of Recommendation (LORs) focusing on quality over quantity. Admissions committees give more weight to letters that have a professional tie (i.e. not family members or close friends).

The Hamilton HPAC asks that you receive 5 to write the committee letter:

• One from a science faculty at Hamilton

• another Hamilton letter of your choice

• and three more from various experiences that were impactful to you

If you plan to apply to osteopathic medical school most DO schools require or prefer a LOR from an osteopathic physician with whom you have shadowed or worked.