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Welcome back. I am writing to tell you about some changes in the Health Careers Committee procedures this year.

1. If you are not already on the SLU Health Careers Committee List Serve, please send an E-mail to Rosemary Taylor (rtaylor@stlawu.edu) requesting your name be added. You will be notified electronically about lectures, advising meetings, scholarships and the like as the year unfolds. Being on the list does not obligate you to do anything and you have your name removed from the list by contacting Ms. Taylor.

2. We are changing the interview “season” this year. With MCAT, GRE and DAT exams all scheduled in late spring, and with applications to many health professions schools due in early June, interviews after the spring recess seemed to add to an already very stressful time. So, we will be conducting spring interviews beginning the second week of the spring semester. We plan to have all interviews completed well before spring recess. In addition to reducing the stress at the end of the semester, we hope the early interviews will allow you to better focus your efforts during the important second semester of the junior year. To allow interviews to be conducted at the beginning of the spring semester, we will be asking you to pick up the student information sheet and secure letters of recommendation from faculty and staff members who know you well at the end of the fall semester. There will be an information meeting about this new procedure likely before Thanksgiving recess. Please plan to attend this meeting.

3. The Health Careers Committee serves a number of functions. HOWEVER PLEASE UNDERSTAND THE INTERVIEW IS NOT INTENDED AS A SCREENING TOOL. We do not see ourselves as an admission committee and so we are not looking for negative things to report in your Committee letter. Our job is to present you in the best light possible while still being truthful, and that is the philosophy we bring to the writing of the letter. However we still see the interview as serving some important roles.

a. First, please view the interview as the opportunity to “practice” answers to questions like why do you want to be a doc, dentists, vet, etc? We hope you will find talking about your motivation will be useful in focusing your application.

b. The interview is also the opportunity to have at least two faculty members talk with you about how to best “package” your application. That is, the opportunity to at least hear some suggestions about what to emphasize as your put your application together.

c. From the point of view of the members of the Health Careers Committee, the interview is the opportunity for us to get information about your activities both in and outside the classroom. We find student are sometimes too modest about their accomplishments and so the interview provides us with the opportunity to be certain we are aware of all you have accomplished.

d. During the interview the members of the Committee will likely also provide you with some feedback about your personal statement. Again, please view this as the opportunity to have other people talk about how you come across in your personal statement. The reason we require a personal statement in preparation of the interview is to have you begin to think about how you will use the page on the health professional school application in which you as told to describe your motivation for a health career.

e. Finally we see the interview as the opportunity for us to make suggestions about appropriate course work, volunteer experiences or other activities that might strengthen your application. In other words, we see the interview as an advising tool.

4. After the interview is completed a draft of the Health Careers Committee letter will be prepared. At that time you will be give an opportunity to review its contact in general terms in an “exit interview.” Although not required, most students find it useful so they can tailor their applications to the contents of the letter. You should also feel free to discuss your interview with the members of the Committee who conducted your interview.

We hope you have a successful year and we look forward to working with you as your consider your application to a health profession school.

David E. Hornung, Ph.D.
Dana Professor of Biology and Chair, Health Careers Committee

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