College of Science

Benedictine students and alumni interested in a health professional school after graduation, and who meet the following criteria are eligible:

• Completion of Intent to Participate form by the end of the third week of the Fall semester, submitted to the Director of the Pre-Health Professions Program.
• Minimum cumulative GPA 3.3 from ALL post-secondary institutions
• Minimum BCPM (Bio, Chem, Physics, Math) course GPA 3.1 from ALL post-secondary institutions
• Minimum 30 credit hours of classes completed at Benedictine University by the end of the academic year in which a letter is sought
• Minimum 12 credit hours  in BCPM courses completed at Benedictine by the end of the academic year in which a letter is sought, including at least one lab course.
• Interest in one of the following professions:

  o    Medicine (MD and DO)
  o    Dentistry
  o    Podiatry
  o    Pharmacy
  o    Optometry
  o    Physician Assistant
  o    Veterinary
  o    Physical Therapy
  o    Occupational Therapy
  o    Chiropractic

Upon submission of the “Intent to Participate” form, a personal Dropbox folder is created for the student. The student will then be sent a personalized link to the folder, where he/she can upload completed files. However, he/she cannot see the contents of his/her folder; only the HPRC members can.

1. Eligibility
Undergraduate students who transferred to Benedictine, have less than 30 credit hours of Benedictine coursework, are interested in a health professional school after graduation, and who meet the following criteria are eligible:

• Completion of Intent to participate form by the end of the third week of the Fall semester, submitted to the Director of the Pre-Health Professions Program.
• Minimum cumulative GPA 3.3 from ALL post-secondary institutions.
• Minimum BCPM (Bio, Chem, Physics, Math) GPA 3.1 from ALL post-secondary institutions
• At least 30 credit hours of classes completed at Benedictine University by the end of the academic year in which a letter is sought
• Minimum 12 credit hours in BCPM courses completed at Benedictine by the end of the academic year in which a letter is sought, including at least one lab course
• Interest in one of the following professions:
  • Medicine (MD and DO)
  • Dentistry
  • Podiatry
  • Pharmacy
  • Optometry
  • Physician Assistant
  • Veterinary
  • Physical Therapy

Graduate students currently enrolled in a Master’s program at Benedictine who are interested in attending a health professional school after graduation are eligible provided they meet the following criteria:

• Completion of Intent to Participate form by the end of the third week of the Fall semester, submitted to the Director of the Pre-Health Professions Program.
• Minimum GPA 3.0 in the graduate program
• At least 14 credit hours of classes completed in the graduate program at Benedictine University by the time the application is submitted
• Interest in one of the following professions:
• Medicine (MD and DO)
• Dentistry
• Podiatry
• Pharmacy
• Optometry
• Physician Assistant
• Veterinary
• Physical Therapy
• Occupational Therapy
• Chiropractic

Upon submission of the “Intent to Participate ” form, a personal Dropbox folder is created for the student. The student will then be sent a personalized link to the folder, where he/she can upload completed files. However, he/she cannot see the contents of his/her folder; only the HPRC members can.

2. Individual letters of recommendation

For transfer students with < 30 credit hours of Benedictine coursework (in their first semester at Benedictine at the time of submitting the “Intent to Participate ” form) and graduate students, there is a slightly different iLOR requirement. 

• At least one (1) letter from a science faculty member at Benedictine or at a prior institution and a letter from an additional resource that can speak to the student’s non-academic qualities should be submitted as part of the application process.
• By the end of Spring semester of the year the student applies,  the student must ensure that at least two (2) letters from science faculty, including at least one Benedictine science faculty member, are included in his/her portfolio. These combined letters then must satisfy the requirements met by all Benedictine students (two from science faculty, one from an additional resource) 

A completed application packet for the student includes the following, all located on the HPRC website:

• HPRC application form
• Personal statement (not a form; write this separately as a .docx or .pdf file)
• FERPA waiver
• Academic Honesty waiver

There are two deadlines for submission of these documents through the provided Dropbox link:

Priority deadline: End of the eighth week of the Fall Semester (Friday, October 23, 2020 by 5:00 PM)
Final deadline: End of the first week of the Spring Semester (Friday, January 22, 2021 by 5:00 PM

• The priority deadline will allow those students earlier access to interviews, thus maximizing their time to correct any deficiencies in their application. Students are encouraged to submit a draft of their application by this deadline.
• The final deadline is strict! Any incomplete applications after that date will result in the student not being allowed to interview with the HPRC in the 2020-2021 academic year.
• Students who still have incomplete applications at the beginning of the spring semester will be contacted by the Chair, reminding them of the final deadline.

If a student needs to obtain a committee letter prior to the end of the fall semester he/she is applying, the student may petition the HPRC Chair and the Director of the Pre-Health Professions Program for an expedited application process. In this case, the complete application is due by the end of the fifth week of the fall semester.

Students are asked to obtain a minimum of three (3), but no more than six (6), individual letters of recommendation (iLORs). Those three letters must come from a combination of two (2) science faculty and one (1) additional resource (not necessarily faculty) that can speak to the student’s non-academic qualities. This could be a club adviser, a Scholar’s advisor, a research mentor, a clinician who supervised a shadowing experience, a supervisor for a volunteering experience, etc.
 

If additional letters are submitted, they may come from other faculty, physicians the student shadowed, volunteer coordinators, etc.

**It is expected that you will ask those whom you are requesting iLOR’s from in advance if it is okay that they provide a letter for you.  If it is discovered that you did not do this, the HPRC may penalize your recommendation by one level.

• Current GPA and unofficial transcripts of applicants will be obtained from MyBenU by the Office Coordinator for Graduate and Pre-Professional Studies supporting the HPRC.  You do not have to do this yourself.

• All finalized applications will be available to all members of the HPRC. For each applicant, two (2) members of the committee will be assigned for primary review of the student’s application.
• These primary reviewers will conduct a personal interview of the applicant during the Spring semester. Applicants should check their e-mail address provided to the committee for who they need to schedule interviews with and when.
• All members of the HPRC will review each student’s application file and primary reviewers’ assessments, and they will provide their own insights and collective committee decision at the committee’s meetings.
• The HPRC chair will prepare a summary of feedback to each applicant after the committee’s review of the applicant is complete. This will be done via the e-mail address provided by the applicant, with an invitation for an in-person meeting should one be desired by the applicant.

• After the interviews are complete, the Director of Pre-Health Professions Program and two faculty interviewers will complete a preliminary review and recommendation. The other voting faculty members on the HPRC will read through the application and personal statement and complete a preliminary review and recommendation based on their reading.
• The full HPRC will then be convened, where the committee will discuss their findings and assess the student for a recommendation level (Outstanding, Strongly Recommend, Recommend, Recommend with Reservation, Do Not Recommend).
• Once the HPRC has made a recommendation, the Chair of the HPRC will contact the student for a short debrief, either via e-mail or in person, to go over the recommendation level and suggestions for improvement.
• The student is then asked whether he/she wishes to receive a letter from the HPRC. If he/she confirms, then letter writing begins. The student will then be asked to identify where he/she would like the letter submitted and to submit a formal request to the HPRC Chair.
• Students must give a minimum of 2 weeks’ notice for where and when the letter must be submitted by. Requests for letters on any shorter timeframe cannot be guaranteed.

Final approval of committee letters will occur once all of a student’s application packet and iLORs are submitted, ant the HPRC has met to discuss the recommendation.

Letters will be primarily written by the faculty who interviewed the student as part of the process, though the Director of the Pre-Health Professions Program and Chair will also participate. As letters are finished, they will go to the Director of Pre-Health Professions Program and Chair for review and editing. Once editing is complete, then the letter is shared with the rest of the HPRC for final approval.

Once final approval is confirmed, the letter is sent to the designated place(s) the student identified and the letter is then archived should the student need an updated letter. In most cases, the committee letter will be sent as a packet along with the iLORs the student included, unless the student requests otherwise.

• Intent to participate (plus exception request)
• Full application
• Checklist
• FERPA Waiver
• Academic Honesty disclosure

Friday, September 18, 2020:  “Intent to Participate” form due by 5:00 PM
**Dropbox link will be sent via e-mail the following week**

Friday, October 2, 2020:  “Expedited Fall” Application due by 5:00 PM
**This requires an appeal to the HPRC Chair and the Director of the Pre-Health Professions Program to be eligible**

Friday, October 23, 2020:  “Priority” Application due by 5:00 PM
**This is for those students who wish to interview with the HPRC in the fall semester**

Friday, January 22, 2021:  FINAL Application due by 5:00 PM
**This is the final deadline!  Any incomplete applications after this date will not be considered!**