HSAC - Preprofessional

The Health Sciences Advisory Committee (HSAC) stands to provide advice and guidance to students interested in preparing for graduate programs in the health sciences. We advise any student from any major interested in a career in health sciences. We have worked with students as far as ten years post graduation to help them with their files. Click here for more information about keeping in touch with the HSAC after graduation.

Services

The HSAC holds monthly information meetings that often include a special guest visitor speaking about some element of health care or funding for graduate programs.
The HSAC encourages students to strengthen their profiles throughout their education at St. Mary’s so that they are strong applicants when they do apply.
Students applying to medical, vet, dental, and some other programs as requested undergo a mock interview with a committee of faculty who know them best. This experience often makes a huge difference when students go on to their actual first interviews.

Resources

Medical Schools
Veterinary Schools
Most Dental Schools
Optometry Schools
Podiatry Schools
Osteopathic Medical Schools

Structure
The HSAC chair is in charge of early advising and monthly meetings. The chairperson holds office hours and is the go-to person for questions and help in building files.
Once a student approaches their application season, the student is assigned to a committee advisor who will help the student through the mock interview. The advisor will also compile the committee letter of recommendation.

HSAC & Faculty Advisors

The HSAC chair distributes applicants to different advisors. Often an advisor has a particularly strong relationship with a student, having had them in classes or talked informally about the student’s career interests. Other times a student’s research interests overlap with an advisor and that makes a good fit. The chair often carries many of the older post graduate applicants.Your personal committee (the group of faculty members who will perform your mock interview and help write your committee letter of recommendation) will include two non-HSAC faculty members. Here are some tips for choosing the right professors for the job.

How to choose an advisor

You have had for at least one class. They should be familiar with you in an academic setting.
Are familiar with your academic and career goals.
Know you well enough to be willing to use their free time for the mock interview.
Will be able to provide helpful and candid feedback on your interview skills.
Are reliable and easy to get ahold of.
Sometimes it is tricky to coordinate so many schedules for the interview, so choose faculty that you know you can count on to make a good effort to be involved.

Creating your Personal HSAC Committee

At the start of your application year (the year during which you plan to apply to professional school), you will have the chance to form your own personal committee.The Committee Consists of:

The HSAC Chair
Your assigned HSAC advisor
Note: If your advisor is the HSAC chair, you will not be assigned an additional advisor for your personal committee.
Two non-HSAC faculty members
You will choose these faculty members yourself.
Ideally, they will be faculty members that know you well enough to provide helpful feedback and advice to you during the mock interview.
These may be the same faculty members that wrote letters of recommendation for you.

The Committee’s Main Responsibilities:

Stage a mock interview to prepare you for professional school interviews.
Compile your committee letter of recommendation.
Your HSAC advisor will be the main person doing the compiling, but the rest of your personal committee may be involved as well, to provide additional insight and edits.
Provide support and guidance for you throughout your application process.

Letters of Recommendation

One of the HSAC’s major roles is to write committee letters of recommendation for students applying to medical, and most dental, veterinary, optometry, podiatry, and osteopathic medical schools. Students interested in nuclear medicine, nursing, physical therapy, sports medicine, and many other programs that do not require a committee letter of recommendation, do not need to establish an HSAC file, but are encouraged to discuss their academic plan with the chair of the HSAC.HSAC Meetings
There are monthly general meetings that all students are invited to attend, this is an especially good way to get a good overview of what is to come and how to prepare. Students also often come during weekly office hours to talk one on one about their progress and plans.

Students should plan to come to one or two meetings a year at the start to be sure they are on track and to have their questions answered. If a particular visitor is important to them (i.e. someone speaking about international medicine, veterinary medicine, how to pay for your medical degree), then students should plan to attend those sessions as well.

Meet The Committee

Updated faculty and contact information will be posted this fall, September 2017.

Your Personal Committee

The committee will consist of:

The HSAC Chair
Your assigned HSAC advisor
Two non-HSAC faculty members
You will choose these faculty members yourself.
Ideally, they will be faculty members that know you well enough to provide helpful feedback and advice to you during the mock interview.
These may be the same faculty members that wrote letters of recommendation for you.

Note: If your advisor is the HSAC chair, you will not be assigned an additional advisor for your personal committee.

Committee’s Main Responsibilities

Stage a mock interview to prepare you for professional school interviews.
Compile your committee letter of recommendation.
Your HSAC advisor will be the main person doing the compiling, but the rest of your personal committee may be involved as well, to provide additional insight and edits.
Provide support and guidance for you throughout your application process.