Pre-Health Committee Letter

Students who are in good academic standing and have earned the certificate are eligible for a committee letter.

The committee members include the program director, co-directors and teaching faculty in the program.

To help the committee write a strong letter, you will complete the Committee Letter Questionnaire with details about your academic history and experiences, including your time before and during the post-baccalaureate program.

The letter also evaluates your academic performance in the program and includes feedback based on your interactions with advisors, faculty and staff. It highlights your interpersonal skills, maturity and professional behavior.

The committee letter highlights key aspects of your experience in the program. Some of the qualities assessed include:

• academic performance
• scientific inquiry/curiosity
• collaboration with peers
• demonstrated respect for others
• attendance and participation in classes and at program events
• honesty and integrity
• willingness to take on challenging coursework
• for CCTs, taking the standard number of our core classes is considered sufficiently challenging
• capacity for improvement 

The committee values the opportunity to get to know you. Your demonstrated strengths in these areas form the basis of the committee letter and any endorsement. These categories include:

• Strongly recommended
• Recommended
• Recommended with reservation
• Evaluated 

There is no limit to the number of strong recommendations. We encourage you to work cooperatively as you strive to be your best academic and professional self.

Committee letters are prepared in spring and summer. Since letter writing is an intensive process, you must meet all deadlines to submit the required forms. If you are eligible, you will receive a secure link to upload your documents. Contact your pre-health advisor for more information.

• February: You can request a committee letter.
• March to May: You will complete the Committee Letter Questionnaire and submit the Release Form and Certificate Application Form.
• June onward: You will submit copies of your submitted and verified primary application.
• July onward: The letter writing committee will send your committee letter directly to the appropriate application service, usually within two weeks of receiving your verified application.

You do not need the committee letter to submit your application to the application service.

The Committee Letter will be submitted directly to the application service; we do not send it via Interfolio.

Use the following information in the References section of the relevant applicant portal:

• Letter type: Committee Letter.
• Letter title: SFSU Committee Letter
• Primary letter author: Name of Program Director
• Email: hplfs@sfsu.edu
• Phone: (415) 405-4226
• Address: 1600 Holloway Avenue, Science and Engineering Innovation Center 502, San Francisco, California 94132

Recommendation letter requirements vary from school to school. Check the requirements for the individual programs you plan to apply for. We recommend obtaining two or three individual support letters in addition to the committee letter. Consider the options below: 

• One letter from an in-depth clinical experience (highly recommended)
• One letter from an in-depth research experience (if applicable)
• One letter from a post-bac instructor of a science course (highly recommended)
• One letter from another activity in which you have been highly involved (if applicable). Common examples include employment, non-clinical or research volunteer work, clubs and organizations. 

Support letters are not incorporated into the program committee letter. You must arrange to have them sent to the application service directly by your letter writers OR obtain a letter forwarding service such as Interfolio and use it to collect and send your support letters to the application service. 

The Letter Release Form allows you to decide (1) whether or not to give your consent to us to include non-directory information in the committee letter and (2) whether or not you waive your right to review the committee letter. See below for more details. 

1. The committee letter contains comments and observations from program leadership and faculty and will include GPA information and a narrative of your journey and preparation. This type of non-directory information can only be included in the letter with your consent.
2. The Family Education Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) gives you the right to access Evaluations unless you choose to waive your right of inspection and review. Prior to requesting an Evaluation, you are required to indicate whether you wish to waive your rights.

• Selecting Yes indicates to programs that your Evaluator completed their Evaluation with the understanding that you would not be able to view it. Programs may view this type of Evaluation as a more accurate representation of an applicant's qualifications.
• Selecting No indicates to programs that your Evaluator completed their Evaluation with the understanding that you may choose to view it in the future. Programs may view this type of Evaluation as a less accurate representation of an applicant's qualifications. 

Please take the time to fill out this form accurately. 

Letter Release Form

Upon submitting your health professional school application, the application service will ask you about releasing information to your advisor. This will authorize us: 

• to better discuss your application with you,
• to receive information about your application (e.g., demographic information, standardized test scores, GPA, schools applied),
• to be better able to guide future applicants and assess health professions schools.

We have met the requirements of the application service and are bound by confidentiality.

We strongly recommend that you indicate "Yes" when your application service asks you about "advisor release."