Pre-Med Recommendation
Every medical school wants recommendations about its applicants that give evaluations beyond what appears on transcripts or MCAT scores. Georgetown University, like many schools, offers a Pre-Medical/Pre-Dental Committee recommendation. You do not have to use the Committee recommendation to apply to medical or dental school, although many medical schools require you do. Even for those that don’t require a committee recommendation, you should be prepared to explain why you chose not to since most medical schools' admissions offices know about the Committee and may wonder why you did not use its recommendation.
To qualify for a review from the Georgetown Pre-Medical Recommendation Committee, a student must have completed all core pre-med coursework (one year each of Biology including BIOL 103, General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics). NHS students may use Human Biology I & II for the year of Biology coursework. All of these courses must be taken as real college coursework (except for Mathematics where one semester of AP credit may be used). Non-majors coursework is not included. Summer school credit (Georgetown or elsewhere) may be used if a full-load (15 credits) is pursued during the academic year, especially if other objectives such as study abroad or double majoring are contemplated. At least 32 credits of major's-level math/science must be taken at Georgetown. Transfer students and PostBacc students are expected to take additional coursework at Georgetown to meet the 24-credit requirement even if they have completed all or some of the core pre-med coursework elsewhere.
As of January 2007, the following are members of the Pre-Medical Recommendation Committee:
Dr. John Delahay, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
Dr. Douglas Eagles, Department of Biology
Mr. Tad Howard, Assistant Dean, Georgetown College
Dr. Joseph McClure, Department of Physics
Dr. Ali Moghaddam, Department of Psychology
Dr. Victoria Pedrick, Department of Classics
Dr. Jennifer Swift, Department of Chemistry
Dr. Ali Whitmer (Chair), Assistant Dean, Georgetown College
How the Committee works
The Committee meets early in June and again in August. Prior to the meeting, each Committee member has examined the application materials of each of the students requesting a recommendation at that time. These materials include: an essay, a resume, transcripts, and four letters of recommendation. The Committee has access to the academic file but rarely uses it. The Committee does not accept MCAT scores as part of the application. That is to ensure an evaluation independent of, and not influenced by, the MCAT and to allow students to choose MCAT examine dates based on their preparation and not on the Committee meeting dates.
After the Committee meets, the Deans prepare the recommendation form, including the letters of reference which are incorporated into one composite letter. Electronic copies of the composite committee letter are posted on the VirtualEvals server and, when formally requested by the student, the letter is made accessible to the medical schools that have asked for secondary application materials.
You can download the current year’s Pre-Medical Review Committee application here. You can also download the cover letter for your letter writers here.
Confidentiality
Another factor that increases the effectiveness of a recommendation is candor and confidence. It has long been a tradition among academic institutions that letters of recommendation be held in confidence. However, to correct abuses in the system, the Family Education and Privacy Act of 1974 brought about regulations which affect this procedure in two ways.
First, unless students sign a waiver, they have a right to see all recommendations entered into their files at any school in which they have registered.
Second, letters of recommendation (or other materials such as transcripts) on file at one school may not be sent to other schools or persons without express consent of the student.
It is important that you follow procedures carefully since so many of them are now regulated by law. This will save your application being delayed or incomplete, and may save both you and school official’s embarrassment.
Specifically, with respect to the waiver of your right to see the recommendation, you should understand that you are in no way coerced to sign the waiver. Understand that there are advantages to both forms of recommendations. On the one hand, the admissions officers will know there has been nothing to prevent total candor on the part of the person writing the reference, and hence a glowing recommendation will carry more credibility; on the other hand, if you do not sign the waiver, you will know exactly what your references have to say about you, which may be something of an educational experience.
With regard to the second way the legislation affects us, we must have clear authorization from you before we send out recommendations to medical or dental schools. This is normally done by your completion of the recommendation request form (actually an address form in duplicate) which may be obtained at 108 White-Gravenor. Please do not embarrass us by calling and asking that we send the recommendations. We need your written request. For this reason, I suggest you take home a supply of the recommendation request forms, as well as some transcript request forms if you are planning to apply during the summer months.
