Credentials
For Pre-Health Applicants
Note that letters of recommendation on file with Career Services Credentials can only be used for the purposes of applying to Medical or Dental schools. If you want letters for jobs or other graduate programs you must ask your recommenders for separate letters, not to be stored at Career Services. You may use Interfolio (www.interfolio.com) for those purposes.
For EACH AND EVERY letter of recommendation submitted to Career Services to be included in your packet, there MUST be a completed and signed recommendation request form. (click here to download the form) Your letters will not be scanned into the system until we have these completed forms.
Pre-Health Applications for Fall 2012 Admission
If you are just beginning the process of applying to Pre-Health schools, please refer to the Pre-Health page, or contact a Pre-Health advisor in either Career Services or the LPS PreMed post-bac program, as appropriate.
LPS Pre-Health Post Bac Students/Alumni
If your Committee Letter is being written by College of Liberal and Professional Studies (LPS) advisors, you may submit application requests after 9:00 am on July 1, 2011. However, you must first review your credentials file online (CLICK HERE) to see that the Committee Letter and all the recommendations you are sending are in the file. Once they are visible to you online, then you may submit your request. Requests submitted prior to all the documents being visible to you, will be returned to you to be submitted after all documents are in our possession and processed to our system. If you do not see your letters online, please contact LPS and/or your recommenders to ascertain the progress of their letters.
Penn Pre-Health Students/Alumni
If your HPAB letter is being written by Career Services advisors, you may begin submitting applications after 9:00am on August 1, 2011. However, you must first review your credentials file online (CLICK HERE) to see that the Committee Letter and all the recommendations you are sending are in the file. Once they are visible to you online, then you may submit your request. Requests submitted prior to all the documents being visible to you, will be returned to you to be submitted after all documents are in our possession and processed to our system. If you do not see your letters online, please contact your recommenders to ascertain the progress of their letters.
We will not accept early applications, nor will we hold incomplete applications. They will be returned to you to resubmit after August 1. This will slow down our processing, as we’ll have to spend time returning early applications.
Fees: If you are working with Career Services Pre-Health Advisors, your first request to submit your Pre-Health packets for this application cycle will cost a one-time flat fee of $80.00; students in the Pre-Health post-bac program in LPS will be charged a one-time flat fee of $90.00. All subsequent requests for your packet to be sent out in this application year will be filled free of charge. However, requests for any supplemental letters to be sent – either along with your packet or at a future date – will be charged an additional fee of $5.00 per letter, plus UPS fees if you request your packet to be sent that way.
Payment: Pre-Health applicants can either use the Career Services online request system, see link below, or opt to submit paper requests in person in our office or via the US mail, links to forms below. Please note that payments can be made with a credit card through our online request system, or in person at the reception desk in Career Services. We are NOT able to process credit card payments through the mail or over the phone. Checks and money orders in US funds made payable to The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania are also accepted.
Please see communications from your Pre-Health advisors for additional instructions related to the current application procedures and dates, and allow yourself plenty of time to get your letters sent out in a timely fashion.
Supplemental Letters: If you would like to submit any supplemental letters of recommendation for health professions schools, you may submit the request on our request forms or online, and they will be sent out to all of the schools to which you have applied. If, however, you would like to submit a supplemental letter of recommendation to a particular medical school (i.e., a professor wrote a letter recommending you for admission to Penn Medical School, specifically), and if that school participates in the AMCAS Letters of Evaluation (LOE) system, then in addition to submitting a request through our regular process, you must also send to Career Services your AMCAS Letter ID Form for that particular letter of recommendation. Since this Form has a bar code and other information for identification purposes, you may send this Form to our office via U.S. Mail, as a scanned attachment to an email (letters@pobox.upenn.edu), or you may drop off a hard copy of the form in person. We cannot send out your supplemental letter without the corresponding AMCAS Letter ID Form. Your request will be held up until we receive the AMCAS letter ID form.
Time for Processing Requests: We require 5-10 business days from when we receive your request to process and send out your materials, so please plan accordingly. We process requests in the order in which they are received. Please respect your fellow students and alumni who are also requesting packets to be sent, and allow yourself time for processing and mailing of these documents. You can log into the Career Services Credentials system to see when your packets are processed. A phone call to our office to find out the information that is already available online will only slow down the whole process.
If you ask that your packets or supplemental letters be sent out on an expedited basis, additional UPS fees will be charged.
Please keep copies of your requests for your own records and reference.
Forms
Below are the most up-to-date forms. If you have an old version of either form, please discard it for the current pdf below:
• Registration Form to open a Career Services credentials file (Pre-Health Applicants Only)
• Letter of Recommendation Form to give to your recommender and to be sent to us with his/her letter on your behalf.
If you prefer not to use the Career Services online request system to place a request, you may download and print one of the forms below and submit it in person or through the US mail. (Faxes will NOT be accepted).
• For Non-LPS Students: Credentials Mailing Request Form for Medical, Dental, or Veterinary Medicine Schools
• For LPS Students: Credentials Mailing Request Form for Medical, Dental, or Veterinary Medicine Schools
Please contact your Pre-Health advisors – Career Services or LPS – with any questions or concerns. If you have questions specifically related to Credentials, please feel free to send an email to letters@pobox.upenn.edu.
(Online request form for LPS students only. All other applicants may request begining August 1st.)
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