Committee Letter Request

Committee Letter Basics

The Committee Letter process at Wesleyan was instituted in 2003. A Committee Letter is written in support of a Wesleyan applicant after a two-hour interview with the Health Professions Advisor/Program Coordinator (HPA/PC), Mildred Rodríguez, PhD. The purpose of this extensive conversation is for the HPA/PC to gain unique insight on each applicant, along with details about their motivations regarding their application to medical or dental programs.

The Committee Letter itself is written by the HPA/PC and contains quotes from the applicant’s individual letters of recommendation.

In previous years, we utilized a Panel of Wesleyan Faculty & Staff to help determine the “level of recommendation” of each applicant for medical or dental school. Beginning with the 2026 Entry Year, Wesleyan University, in collaboration with other NECOME (Northeast Consortium of Medical Education) undergraduate schools, will no longer be using a health professions panel to determine qualitative levels of recommendation for our candidates. Rather than assigning each applicant a hierarchical level of recommendation, we aim to use the Committee Letter to provide an inclusive assessment that should assist in determining an applicant’s suitability for an interview and potential admission. We take pride in the caliber of our students and alumni and advocate for their holistic and equitable evaluation.

Even though medical and dental programs do not require a Committee Letter File, they are familiar with Wesleyan’s process and greatly appreciate this comprehensive document which is used to assess whether an applicant will be offered an interview and consideration as a possible member of their incoming cohort. All students and alumni planning on applying to medical and dental programs should consider requesting a Committee Letter File, given that schools expect to see this document.

The Gordon Career Center Health Professions Program provides administrative support for the management of your letters of recommendation for admission to health professional school in a reliable and confidential manner. To request a Committee Letter of Recommendation on behalf of the Wesleyan University you must register for a Committee Letter File and review the information below carefully.

Preparing for and Applying to Medical School

Applying to health professions graduate programs requires: advanced planning, a clear sense of the required timeline, knowledge of how the process works, understanding of how your metrics are taken into consideration, along with the other criteria that are assessed to measure your competitiveness, and thoughtful consideration regarding from whom you will be requesting your individual letters of recommendation.

The process of applying to health profession schools begins approximately eighteen months prior to your intended entry date. For example, if you intend to matriculate to medical or dental school in the fall of 2026, you will request the Committee Letter File in the fall of 2024 and you will you begin the centralized application process at the start of May 2025. Subsequent to that primary application, in the summer of 2025 you will complete applications specific to each school (also known as the secondaries). You may begin pre-writing your essays for the secondary applications ahead of time at this link.

If you are still assessing your readiness to apply, take time to listen to the All Access: Medical School Admissions podcast offered by the Case Western School of Medicine. You can also check out the “Beyond the White Coat” podcast from AAMC. The podcast “convenes authentic conversations between members of the academic medical community, AAMC leaders, and other health professionals on timely issues.”

To view the health professions admissions outcomes here at Wesleyan, please click here. For those applicants that may have DACA status check the list of medical schools that will consider your application to their school.

Here at Wesleyan, the Health Professions Essential Meeting reviews the details of the admissions process and is conducted on the second Monday of October of each year. Please visit the Handshake Events page for the exact date and location. See also the Timeline for the Committee Letter process.

As you are preparing, you will benefit from reviewing the AAMC Applicants and Matriculants Data, the Medical School Admission Requirements™ Reports for Applicants and Advisors, and the Medical School Admissions Guide. You should also take a look at AAMC.org and search for the Medical School 101 page for some useful tips.

Health Professions Administrative Assistant (HPAA) Contact Information

Darwin Pappas-Fernandes
Health Professions Administrative Assistant
Phone: 860-685-3376
Email: health.professions@wesleyan.edu / dpappasferna@wesleyan.edu

Request an appointment in advance online on Handshake, or via phone or email. You must call or email to request same-day appointments.

COMMITTEE LETTERS VS LETTER PACKETS

Committee Letter Files will be provided to registrants who identified themselves as applicants to health professions graduate programs in medical, dental, or veterinary medicine. A Committee Letter File includes the Committee Letter, the set of individual Letters of Recommendation (LORs) in their entirety, and the Health Professions Resume, which is transmitted to the applicant’s centralized application system.

Letter Packets will be provided to registrants who identified themselves as applicants to health professions graduate programs to pursue physician assistant, optometry, physical therapy, pharmacy, etc. The Letter Packet consists of a standard cover letter and the set of individual letters of recommendation on file.

Student and Alumni Applicants requesting a Committee Letter or Letter Packet file are required to schedule an appointment with the HPAA on Handshake. For Letter Packet instructions, see the end of this webpage.

THE COMMITTEE LETTER INSTRUCTIONS, OVERVIEW, & TIMELINE

The applicant is responsible for becoming informed regarding the process, including all deadlines, by reviewing the EY2026 Instructions & Overview packet as well as the Submittable Guidelines.

Please review our Committee Letter Timeline and Post-Interview Check List carefully (also found in the Instructions & Overview packet). The applicant should also review the information provided on this webpage and elsewhere within the Health Professions website.

COMMITTEE LETTER FILE REGISTRATION

Required Forms: The forms linked below should be submitted to the HPAA prior to your Committee Letter meeting.

Registrants may pay the $50 Processing Fee for the Committee Letter service by check. Checks should be payable to Wesleyan University, and include the applicant’s name and Wes ID number in the “memo” or “for” section. Credit cards/digital payment methods are not accepted.

*You will need to complete this form for each individual letter writer uploading a letter of support on your behalf. Please note that if the HPAA does not receive these individual letter request forms, we will not be able to use the letters of recommendation for your Committee Letter File. The form itself only needs to be returned to the HPAA, but please provide each of your letter writers with the Letter of Recommendation Guidelines.

**Current students may be eligible for a Fee Waiver pending a decision from the Financial Aid Office.

SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS REQUIRED PRIOR TO A COMMITTEE LETTER INTERVIEW

  • HP Committee Letter Resume (if available) or a general resume
  • Activities/Experiences/Extracurricular Details Worksheet
  • All transcripts, including Wesleyan’s (unofficial transcripts are okay for the interview)
  • Personal Statement draft: at least 2-4 paragraphs addressing your decision-making process for this health profession, what health-related experiences you pursued and how these have strengthened your decision. The final version should be approximately 2-3 pages in length

LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION

Letters of Recommendation (LORs) are confidential and may not be read by the student or alumni/a. This is highly recommended from the standpoint of admissions committees because it provides a higher degree of credibility to the letters written on your behalf.

When you request a letter of recommendation, you should provide your letter writers with, at minimum, at least 8-week’s-notice, a resume, a short personal statement, and the Letter of Recommendation Writing Guide for Committee Letters (Med/Dent/Vet).

A Committee Letter File cannot be completed without at least three individual letters of recommendation on file. Moreover, at least one letter of recommendation must be from a Wesleyan University faculty or staff member. You must notify the HPAA if there are any changes to your list of letter of recommendation writers.

If your writers need assistance submitting letters to Submittable, please contact the HPAA health.professions@wesleyan.edu or by phone at 860-685-3376.

FORMAL REQUEST FOR CL UPLOAD

By Federal Law as per The Buckley Amendment, your Committee Letter or Letter Packet, including the individual letters of recommendation on file with Submittable, will only be sent out to the health professions programs after you have submitted a Formal Request to the HPAA containing your signature, your ID number(s), your preferred email address, and a list of all medical, osteopathic, dental, or veterinary medicine schools to which you are applying. The Submtitable Form for this will be sent to applicants on May 1st.

INSTITUTIONAL ACTION

When requesting a Committee Letter of Recommendation or a Letter Packet, you will complete and submit a Letter of Clearance Form, which provides the Health Professions Advisor with a Letter of Academic and Disciplinary Clearance from the Office of Student Affairs. If you have any record of disciplinary sanctions at Wesleyan, you will receive a copy of this letter describing in detail the violation. For complete transparency, a brief description of the violation is included at the end of the Committee Letter.

Upon completing your centralized application to health professions programs (e.g. AMCAS, AADSAS, VMCAS, PharmCAS, OptomCAS, CASPA, etc.) you will be requested to disclose any incident that pertains to non-academic conduct violations as well as academic misconduct. While discussing the incident(s) you should also reflect on what you learned from this experience and how it may have contributed to your growth.

If a health professions school requests a copy of this Letter of Academic and Disciplinary Clearance, please send the request to Mildred Rodríguez, PhD, Health Professions Advisor/Program Coordinator, who will send a cover letter accompanied by a copy of the Letter of Academic and Disciplinary Clearance to that specific program. Send the request by email to mrodriguez01@wesleyan.edu and copy the email to health.professions@wesleyan.edu. In the subject line of the email please indicate “Letter of Clearance Request.”

A NOTE ON DEADLINES

If you miss designated deadlines, or do not take the MCAT for the first time by the last test date in July, we will be unable to provide you with a Committee Letter File. However, you may still request a Letter Packet.

If you have earlier submission deadlines for documents in support of your application to your health professions programs (such as program-specific requirements or Early-Decision applications), we will need a minimum of 45 days advanced notice.

If you have a deadline in January you must have your requests to the Health Professions Administrative Assistant no later than the 1st of December of the prior year. Any requests received after that date are not guaranteed to meet January deadlines. The Committee Letter File Request will be closed for winter break beginning mid-December and will re-open the second week of January. Please make note of this hiatus.

THE LETTER PACKET PROCESS

The Letter Packet consists of a standard cover letter and all of your individual letters of recommendation on file.

The applicant is responsible for reviewing the designated deadlines and becoming informed regarding the entire process by carefully reading the Instructions & Overview Packet.

THE REQUIRED DOCUMENTS FOR A LETTER PACKET REQUEST

  • Request for a Letter Packet (file)
  • Letter of Clearance (file)
  • Document Transmittal (file)
  • Letter Packet Signature Page (file)
  • Request for Individual Letters of Recommendation (file)

You will need a request form for each individual letter writer uploading a letter of support on your behalf. You should provide them with the Letter of Recommendation Writing Guide for HP Letter Packets.