Health Professions Advising at Mason

Composite Letter

The Health Professions Advisor compiles an applicant's letters of evaluation to produce an institutional composite letter of evaluation for admission to American medical, dental, optometric, and podiatric graduate progams. This letter generally summarizes the applicant's personal qualities and experiences that provide insight to an admissions committee on the applicant's personal motivations, character, and preparation for a health professional education.

Applicants must fulfill or address these requirements:

• Completion of 6 of 8 semester courses among the science prerequisites of General Chemistry, Physics, Organic Chemistry, and Biology. One exception is for the Early Selection Program at George Washington for which the requirements are specifically listed.
• Submitted pre-application with properly signed forms and digital photograph.
• Grade point average of 3.00 as calculated by Mason OR the central application service. Students may apply if their GPA is below 3.00 if the rest of their application is outstanding.
• Documented commitment to take the proper standardized admissions exam, or scores from the most recent exam.
• Good academic standing (i.e., never been suspended for academic honor code or behavior violations).

Health professions schools that strongly prefer composite reference letters include all allopathic and osteopathic medical programs (including all combined degree programs), dental schools, optometry, and podiatry. Other health professions graduate programs (like pharmacy and veterinary schools) may also prefer a composite reference letter, but one should check the program's website for more information. A general rule of thumb: if a program requires admissions testing scores from the MCAT, DAT, or OAT, chances are you need a reference letter. (If you have to take the PCAT or GRE, you probably will not need a composite, but it couldn't hurt.)

Many admissions committees prefer receiving a composite letter rather than individual letters of evaluation. Each school has its own reasons, but the major ones are: number of applications (UCLA medical school gets over 7000 applications a year, so that would be at least 20,000 reference letters) and a consistent evaluator/voice who knows what most admissions committees look for in candidates and can honestly compare an applicant against other applicants at that institution.

Do I really need the letter?

Between 1994 and 2005, 428 George Mason students or alumni applied for admission to an allopathic medical (MD) program. 256 students (59.8%) went through the MSAC interview process to receive a composite letter of evaluation. In that same period, 163 applicants were admitted to medical school (39.5% of 428 applicants), of which 137 had an MSAC composite letter (54.7% of 256 MSAC applicants, 84.0% of 163 admitted).

Sending your letters of reference and avoiding getting an institutional composite letter are "red flags" to the admissions committees. It has been common practice for an admissions officer to contact the Health Professions Advisor to explain why a candidate circumvented the institutional letter. Suffice it to say, all applicants should expect to go through the MSAC if they consider themselves serious candidates for admission to a medical program.

So far there are very few data available to comment on dental school admissions.

Who writes the letters?

From all the applicant's solicited letters of evaluation and from one's notes from the interview, the Health Professions Advisor creates the composite letters. Beginning with the 2007 entering class, the Health Professions Advisor transmits these confidential letters and evaluations to admissions committees through an electronic repository (VirtualEvals) created specifically for Health Professions Advisors unless otherwise dictated by the student or the admissions program officer.

Unless the letter is for a specific program or scholarship that explicitly requires it, the composite evaluation letter is not specifically addressed to a particular program. All the schools that an applicant checks off on the centralized application form will have access to this composite letter. The composite letter will not be delivered to other organizations.

Dr. Chuck interviews all applicants and writes all composite letters for those interested in combined degree programs (MD/PhD, /JD, /MBA, /MPH) and all early MD programs. Because of his role in formatting and editing other composite references, Dr. Chuck will not write individual letters of reference.

The timelines for preparing and transmitting these letters are included in the PDF or Word document packet.

Documents
Introduction

Tips for Evaluators

Primer for Faculty Evaluators

External Links
Recommendation Letters: Tips, Tricks, and Advice

Resources for Writing Letters of Reference (NAAHP)

Academic Advising Information Sheets (Word):
Dentistry
Medical
Pharmacy
Physician Assistant
Veterinary