Medical/Veterinary/Dental School Application Process
Application Process GUIDELINES
Applying to medical, dental or veterinary school requires careful planning and should begin the first day of your Freshman year. If you plan to matriculate into professional school the fall after you graduate from KU, you'll need to apply at the end of your junior year.
For example, if you will graduate Spring semester of 2022 and plan to matriculate into a medical school program in Fall semester of 2022, you will need to apply the Summer/Fall of 2021. Since the application process occurs an entire (1) year in advance, your Junior year will be your most important and busy year. On the 1st day of your freshman year you should start to think that by your junior year you'll have to have achieved and/or prepare to achieve many things including the following:
- Maintain excellent grades
- Continue to gain meaningful clinical experience
- Continue to serve your university and/or community
- Seek external letters of recommendation
- Interview with the Premedical Committee
- Prepare your personal essay
- Prepare for and take a standardized entrance exam (e.g. GRE, DAT, MCAT, etc.)
- Register to complete centralized application (e.g. AMCAS, AACOMAS, VMCAS)
- Visit medical schools to which you intend to apply
- Prepare for medical school interviews
Many of these tasks have deadlines and it will be important for you to be organized and well-prepared to meet all-important deadlines.
Below we have provided a generalized timetable of the application process for a student who plans to matriculate into medical/veterinary/dental school in the fall following graduation from Kutztown University.
Note that deadlines for individual schools vary. For more information about deadlines for specific schools, visit the AAMC website. https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/amcas/participating_schools/
Fall (junior year) | Declare to the KU Pre-Medical Committee your intent to apply |
Fall/Spring (junior year) | Conduct individual and group interviews with KU Pre-Medical Committee |
Summer-Fall (senior year) | Take MCAT/GRE/DAT and submit your application (Summer/Fall) |
Fall-Spring (senior year) | Medical school interviews |
Spring (senior year) | Congratulations! You've been accepted |
Fall following graduation | Matriculate into medical/veterinary/dental school |
General information on letters of recommendation
As part of your application to professional schools, you will need to submit letters of recommendation. There are two primary types of recommendation letters: individual and committee. As the name implies, individual letters represent an individual's assessment of the applicant's strengths and weaknesses. In contrast, a committee letter represents a composite evaluation produced from multiple sources, and is generally considered a University's official assessment of the candidate's potential. Professional schools that accept or require committee letters (nearly all medical, dental and veterinary school) will generally give greater weight to committee letters. In fact, if a university provides committee letter services and a candidate instead elects to provide only individual letters of recommendation, it might weigh against the candidate. Kutztown University offers a committee service for all students who are applying to dental, veterinary and medical schools. Please see below for more information about receiving committee letters of support.
In addition to your committee letter, we recommend that you include additional individual letters of recommendation in your application package. It is important that you choose individuals who have a strong understanding of your potential to be a health care provider. These individuals could be other faculty members or a health care provider who supervised your internship, fellowship, etc. We strongly recommend that you do not include character references, as these are unlikely to strengthen your application package.
Note: individuals who have provided the KU Pre-Medical Committee with an evaluation of you, as a part of the Committee's review process, should not be selected to send a separate letter on your behalf.
Pre-Med Resources
Kutztown Career Development Center
MCAT Preparation Program
The Biology Department offers a free, year-long MCAT preparation program to students seeking to apply to medical school. This intensive program is designed to help prepare students who will soon be taking the MCAT exam as part of the medical school application process. We recommend enrolling in the program during your Junior year (Senior year if you intend to take a gap year).
The program entails out-of-class self-study, mock exams, group study, free access to the Gold Standard DVD series, a 16 DVD set that provides instruction and practice questions in key areas of the MCAT, and a personalized study plan prepared by the program coordinator.
If you are interested in applying to the MCAT preparation program, contact the MCAT preparation program coordinator, Dr. Dan Aruscavage (Boehm 217, aruscava@kutztown.edu).
Health Careers Society
The Health Careers Society (HCS) is a student-run organization whose goal is to inform pre-health students at Kutztown University about health careers and the paths to making it in a health career. Students who are in this organization will have unique opportunities that will aid in building their resume. For more information concerning the Health Careers Society and other student organizations sponsored by the Biology Department, please visit the Student Resources page.
Professional Medical Organizations
Allopathic Medicine
Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC)
Osteopathic Medicine
American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM)
Dental
American Dental Education Association (ADEA)
American Dental Association
Veterinary Medicine
Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMA)