Because there are many undergraduate institutions that do not provide a Committee process for their students, health profession schools do not require participation in a Health Professions Committee process to apply to their program. However, for applicants coming from institutions that do have a Health Professions Committee (like UMBC), certain medical schools (not all) may want to understand why an applicant did not participate in their institution’s process.
Dental, optometry, veterinary, and podiatry schools typically do not request this information.
After an individual medical school processes your secondary application – the school-specific application phase that follows the completion of your primary (AMCAS or AADSAS) application – they will most likely provide you with feedback if they require some form of documentation that explains your reason for not receiving an HPEC letter from UMBC. It is the applicant’s responsibility to research each of the individual medical schools to which they are applying, to know which of their schools require (or are likely to request) this documentation. It is good practice for an independent applicant to communicate directly with each school’s admissions office regarding their school’s expectations or policy with regards to this kind of documentation.
The PreMedical and PreDental Advising Office provides what we call a “No Pre-Health Committee” letter that can be sent to the schools that request such documentation. This letter is not a UMBC Health Professions Evaluation Committee letter, nor is it a recommendation letter or a letter of evaluation. This is a form letter – short and concise – that explains why the applicant did not participate in UMBC’s HPEC process, e.g., if the applicant did not meet the HPEC’s minimum requirements or if the applicant missed the deadline for entry into a cohort.
To request a “No Pre-Health Committee” letter from UMBC’s PreMedical and PreDental Advising Office for the 2023-2024 application cycle, please follow these instructions:
- Maintain a list of the professional schools that have requested this documentation from you. You will only be allowed to make ONE request for “no pre-health committee” letters to be sent to your designated schools, so please wait until you have learned of all of the schools that need this documentation. This request is typically made of an applicant when they complete the secondary application phase.
- In the AMCAS (or AADSAS) application provide Advisor Release (select ‘Yes’ after you enter information about UMBC).
- Create an Individual (not Committee) letter entry in AMCAS. You will find the necessary letter author information at the top of the request form linked below.
- Complete the “No Pre-Health Committee” Letter Request form (link below) no later than 5:00 pm on Friday, October 6, 2023. To do this, you will need:
- A PDF copy of your fully processed AMCAS application. In other words, your status in AMCAS should be “Processed,” not “Active” or “Hold,” when you download the copy of your application. Requests from students whose applications are not processed will not be honored.
- The complete list of schools that have requested a “No Pre-Health Committee” letter from you. Be prepared to include the full name of the professional school, as well as the city and state where it is located. For example: University of Maryland School of Medicine (Baltimore, MD)
Remember, please wait until after your SECONDARY applications (the school-specific applications that are separate from the AMCAS primary application) are submitted and processed by each individual medical school before you formulate a finalized list of schools that require a “No Pre-Health Committee” letter and make your request. Plan accordingly to properly meet the October 6, 2023 deadline.
When you complete the “No Pre-Health Committee” request form, you should receive a submission receipt at the email address that you use in the form. All requests will be held for fulfillment until after the October 6, 2023 deadline has passed. After October 9th, you may receive an additional set of instructions from the PreMedical and PreDental Advising Office that will help us make the final submission of your “No Pre-Health Committee” letter to your designated schools.