Timeline

• This is a time to make sure medicine is what you really want to do, and to start gathering practical experience to see what the field is really like.

Let’s Get Started

• Is a career in healthcare right for you?
• Start planning your HSAC file
• Submit the HSAC Introductory Worksheet and send it to the HSAC chair at hsac@smcm.edu.
• Begin asking for letters of recommendations from professors as soon as you finish their course: this ensures that they remember you and details of your academic performance.

Students attending Med School the fall after graduation

• You will be applying through the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS) the June following your junior academic year.
• Get your file and committee established during your Junior year and begin collecting information and writing your personal statement.
• You should have already or plan to get some practical experience in the medical field soon.

Students taking a year off after graduation

• You will be applying through the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS) the June following your senior academic year.
• Get your file and committee established during your Junior year and begin collecting information and writing your personal statement.
• Plan to get soon, some practical experience in the medical field.
• You should have already or plan to get some practical experience in the medical field soon.

September:

• Establish a file with the chair of the Health Science Advisory Committee.
• Submit the “HSAC Application Form” if you have not already done so to the HSAC chair, or at the chair’s office (listed here).
• Begin to request letters of recommendation

Winter Break

• Start writing your personal statement. These statements should be submitted directly to the HSAC Committee member assigned to you as your HSAC mentor.

Important: Each student who wishes to interview with their committee in the spring for a summer or early fall application process must present without exception a strong working draft of their personal statement by the Friday following Spring Break.

January

• Request that a copy of your transcript be sent to your assigned HSAC mentor/advisor. You can determine which HSAC committee member is serving in this role by checking on the Blackboard HSAC site. Transcripts from coursework taken at other institutions should also be requested at this time.
• Choose faculty members who will serve on your committee and tell your HSAC advisor/mentor who they are. Please ask two faculty members who you feel know you well to serve on your HSAC. Selecting faculty from across divisions often enhances your interview experience. Your final committee will consist of your chosen faculty members, your HSAC advisor/mentor, and another HSAC committee member who will be assigned to your personal committee.
• Ask for help with your personal statement.
• Prepare a résumé highlighting your activities and accomplishments; submit this to your HSAC advisor/mentor.

During the First Week of March

• Check on your file with the HSAC advisor/mentor to see what has come in and catch up with what is missing.

March, by the Friday following Spring Break:

• Add a polished working draft of your personal statement to your file.

At this time your file should contain:

• Letters of recommendation from professors and supervisors. Two from faculty within your major, one from outside your major, and at least one from a supervisor of practical experience in health care.
• A current St. Mary’s College transcript, and transcripts from classes taken outside of St. Mary’s College.
• A draft of your personal statement.
• A résumé highlighting your activities and accomplishments.
• Previous MCAT scores.

Mid-March through April

• Schedule your interview and meet with your committee. Due to the growing number of students applying to graduate programs in the health sciences, committee meetings must begin soon after Spring Break and continue throughout April. All meetings should take place before May. Meetings will not be planned during finals or Senior Week.

Also in the Spring, usually in April

• Take your MCAT. If you apply during the summer following your junior year, you need these scores; without these scores, you may be passed over for consideration until your August or fall test scores are processed and sent to your selected schools, usually about two months from the exam date. Since most medical schools begin interviews in the early fall and may begin to accept students on a rolling basis, postponing the completion of your file and its evaluation reduces your chances of acceptance.

Reminder: Please forward or provide a copy of your test scores to your HSAC advisor/mentor for your file.

• Prepare your application and apply to medical school. AMCAS begins accepting applications June 1st. [AMCAS Deadlines]

Once your primary application (AMCAS) is complete, it’s time to forward a complete list of schools and their addresses, as you wish them to be sent, to the chair of the HSAC.

Use the form that’s available on the Blackboard HSAC site to do so. Please be very careful and complete – we simply copy and paste the information you provide to mailing labels when we send out your materials; if you make an error, your materials will then go astray.

Further Information –>

After your secondary applications are completed and mailed, please notify the chair of the HSAC so that your letter of support may be sent.