PreProfessional

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Predental

Other Heath Professions

Credential Service

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Prehealth Advisors

Newsletter

Minority Resources

Preprofessional Stats

Credential Service

• Credential Service
• Letters of Recommendation
• Prehealth Advisor Letter
• Dental School Applicants
• Forms
• Service User Responsibilities
  • Policies
  • Service Fee
  • Credential File Upkeep

Credential Service

The Credential Service is designed to provide a reliable, efficient means of collecting and disseminating letters of recommendation to medical or other health profession schools and medical/health profession related scholarships for MIT students and alumni/ae.

Through the Credential Service, the preprofessional advising staff provides the following services:

• Stores your letters of recommendation for health related schools, programs and scholarships.
• Reviews each letter submitted to ensure quality and accuracy and contacts the letter writers to request revisions as deemed appropriate and necessary.
• Creates a packet for your prehealth advisor to use when writing his or her letter. The packet includes: general letters of recommendation, exam scores, transcripts, and personal statement.
• Sends your "core" packet of letters, including your prehealth advisor letter, electronically or via FedEX to health profession schools, programs and scholarships. (The credential service does not send any other documents such as transcripts to schools, except for hidden grades if necessary.)

Students and alums may open a credential file as early as freshman year, however it is recommended that a credential file be opened no later than two years prior to intended matriculation to a health profession school. Ex. Individual seeking fall 2011 matriculation to a health profession program should open a credential file by fall 2009.

Letters of Recommendation

Method of Delivery

Once all of your recommendation letters, including the prehealth advisor letter (if applicable), are received by the CDC we scan each document to create one PDF file that is sent to your designated schools in one of the following ways:

• Electronically: Through the use of VirtualEvals to participating health profession schools. For a complete list of participating schools using VirtualEvals, please visit the VirtualEvals homepage.
  • If applying to a medical school participating in the AMCAS letter program, your letter packet will be sent to the AMCAS letters of recommendation service through VirtualEvals.
    
    
• Mail: Through FedEx to schools and programs not using VirtualEvals.
  • Addresses provided in the Medical School Admission Requirements book are used for all mailings. If you are applying to MSTP, MEMP, MD/PhD programs, please be certain to provide your programs specific address on the school designation form.

For general information regarding letters of recommendation please see the Medical School Application Process page.

For guidelines on how to write and send letters of recommendation, please refer your recommenders to the Recommender Information Sheet and Waiver Form.

IMPORTANT NOTE:
Individuals with Prehealth Advisors- The Deadline for Submitting Recommendation Letters (not including the prehealth advisor letter) is June 30th

Advisor Letter

All general letters of recommendation must be received by June 30th for the Career Development Center to mail them to your prehealth advisor for their use in writing their letter of recommendation. As a reminder, it is your responsibility to regularly check on CareerBridge to make sure your letters and required file materials have been received and are ready to be sent to your advisor.

Please review the Prehealth Advisor page for information on how to request a prehealth advisor. If you are not assigned a prehealth advisor, the CDCD will attach a letter to your recommendation packet indicating that you do not have an advisor and that this should not be held against your application.

Dental School Applicants

Please note that the Associated American Dental Schools Application Service (AADSAS) provides a credential service for dental students. All MIT applicants who have a Prehealth Advisor are required to use the Prehealth Advising credential service as a supplement to the AADSAS service. All other MIT dental applicants without Prehealth Advisors are also welcome to use this service.

Applicants using AADSAS and the Career Development Center are responsible for all of the policies, fees, and procedures outlined on this webpage. If you are using the MIT Prehealth credential service, the following are specific details that dental applicants should note:

• All letters of recommendation should be sent directly to the Career Development Center (CDC).
• Once your file is complete CDC will send them to your Predental advisor as reference while writing his/her letter.
• Once your Predental Advisor has completed his/her letter of recommendation, his or her letter must be sent to CDC. CDC will send the completed letter packet to AADSAS.
• AADSAS will distribute your letters to the Dental Schools that you designate on the application website.
• Under the “Evaluators” section of AADSAS you will need to list only one evaluation and indicate that it will be a committee letter and that your letters are being submitted electronically. Use the following information to fill in the evaluator's name and contact section:

Shanell Littlejohn
Career Development Center
77 Massachusetts Avenue 12-170
Cambridge , MA 02139
slittlej@mit.edu

Typically, dental applicants use the AADSAS credential service. If you are using the Career Development Center credential service to have letters sent directly to dental schools, please note that we use addresses provided through the Official Guide to Dental Schools book.

Forms

• Prehealth Registration - Directions for prehealth registration. Prehealth registration is a prerequisite to requesting a prehealth advisor and should be completed between spring and summer two years prior to desired matriculation to a health profession school.
• Advisor Request Form - Once you have completed a prehealth registration meeting, submit this form between September and November two years prior to desired matriculation year to a health profession school. Annual deadline for submitting this form is November 30th.
• Credential Service Form - Use this form to create a file in the Career Development Center (CDC) for recommendation letter submission only. A credential file may be opened as soon as you have letters that you would like to have submitted.
• File Checklist - Once you have opened your credential service file, use this checklist to keep track of the items you need to submit in order to complete your file.
• Recommender Designation Form - This form tells the CDC who is writing your letters of recommendation for your applications. In addition, it indicates to the schools whether you have chosen to waive your rights to see your recommendation letters. Please include your prehealth advisor on this form as a recommender writer. The office will use this list to determine when your file is complete and ready to be sent to your prehealth advisor.
• Recommender Information Sheet and Waiver Forms - This form contains general formatting and content tips and should be provided to your recommendation letter writers. Be sure to provide each recommender a completed copy of this form.
• School Designation Form - Once you confirm that we have received all of the items on the "File Checklist", you can submit this form to release your letters to schools that have requested a secondary application from you. Your letters will be sent to all the schools listed within three business days of receipt of the form.
• Interview Questionnaire - Fill this form out after you have interviewed at a school. This information can be very helpful for other MIT applicants, when preparing for interviews in the future. Completed questionnaires are compiled in the office from previous years, for you to review.

Service User Responsibilities

Policies

• Individuals using the credential service in conjunction with a prehealth advisor must follow the deadlines as outlined on the Health Profession Schools Deadline sheet.
• Files are kept for three years in the Career Development Center (CDC) from the date of the student's anticipated entry year into a health profession school.
• Files that are three (3) years old are transferred from the CDC to MIT Archives and are subject to the Institute Archive policies. Prehealth credential files are shredded after being in Archives for 4 years.
• Recommendation letters may only be used for applying to Health Profession schools and medical/health profession related scholarships. The credential service does not provide mailings to programs or scholarships unrelated to health professions.
• An additional consent will be required from the author of each recommendation letter that is one year or older to be used in an application. It is also recommended that letters a year or older should be updated and revised to best reflect the student's/alumni's recent accomplishments and developed relationship with the recommender.
• A signed letter of consent by the student is required to transfer files to credential services at other institutions.
• Recommendation letters provided after a waiver form is signed by the student (i.e. waiving their right to view) are considered confidential and will not be provided to the student or alumni.
• Payment will not be accepted until a School Designation Form is received. Individuals must wait until they receive secondary applications to complete the School Designation Form.
• Recommendation packets will be mailed within (3) business days of a file being completed. A complete file is comprised of all recommendation letters, school designation form, and payment for the credential service. Packets will include all letters of recommendation in your file, with waivers, and a cover letter.
• Freshman grades will only be included in the packet mailings if a student has released the grades to the CDC. Permission to release freshman grades to medical or health profession schools must be indicated on the school designation form.

Service Fee

A $60 flat fee is due by June 30th for packet compilation and dissemination to prehealth advisors and to health profession schools, programs and scholarships that accept electronic transmission of recommendation letters. An additional $6 fee will be charged for mailings sent by FedEx to the health profession schools, programs and scholarships that do use an electronic letter service. Please use the school designation form to make arrangements to have your letter packet sent to non-AMCAS schools and programs.

Checks should be written out to MIT. Click here to make a payment by credit card.

Special Note: Individuals who qualified for the AAMC Fee Assistance Program (FAP) or similar program for other application services, may have their credential service fees waived. To have your credential service fee waived, please submit a copy of your eligibility for the FAP program or other program to Preprofessional Advising.

AAMC FAP http://www.aamc.org/students/applying/fap/

Credential File Upkeep

The owner of a credential file is responsible for the following:

• Providing all necessary items to the Career Development Center as listed in on the File Checklist by June 30th for individuals who have been assigned a prehealth advisor.
• Maintaining contact with recommenders to ensure that their letters of recommendation have been sent to the Career Development Center by June 30th. (The June 30th deadline specifically applies to individuals with an assigned prehealth advisor.)
• Utilizing CareerBridge to check-in on the status of their file and to upload necessary information and documents to complete their file. Directions for using CareerBridge for tracking your credential file If questions remain after using CareerBridge to check your account status, please contact Shanell Littlejohn, Credential Service Administrator, at slittlej@mit.edu.
• Submitting a School Designation Form and payment to notify the Career Development Center of which schools they would like their recommendation packets be sent to. Please note, a School Designation Form should not be submitted until you have received secondary applications and your prehealth advisor letter has been received by the Career Development Center.

Last updated on Monday, August 31, 09 at 06:02:31 PM EDT.