Office of Health Professions Advising

Contents

Purdue's Professional File Service

The Center for Pre-Professional Advising office offers students the opportunity to open a professional file containing their letters of evaluation/recommendation. The Center for Pre-Professional Advising office then distributes their letters to their chosen professional programs. The process is simple and ensures that the letters are available to medical, optometry, dental schools, etc. quickly after their letters are received. The letters are housed for five years so they are immediately available if the student needs to apply again.

One note about professional files: letters can be used only for the purpose for which they were collected. If a student placed letters in a file to be sent to medical schools but then decides to apply to public health programs, he or she must obtain new letters written for the new purpose.

The only exceptions to this rule: we will send letters to postbaccalaureate programs, to the U.S. military for scholarships supporting medical/dental training, and to other scholarship programs that will support the student's medical/dental training.

If a student is using the Center for Pre-Professional Advising File Service, it allows you to submit just one copy of your letter to our office in 828 Young Hall..
We hold student letters for five years and will send the letters out for students. Please note: some programs require letter writers to enter their recommendation materials directly onto their systems (such as VMCAS for veterinary medicine).
Students are required to sign a FERPA form indicating whether they are maintaining their access to their letters or waiving their access. We recommend that the student waive access because the letters are given more consideration if he or she did not have access, but it is the student's legal right to maintain access. You may refuse to write a letter until they indicate this information to you.
Letters can only be used for the type of program for which they were originally intended. Please save an electronic copy of the letter in case the student decides to apply to a different kind of program. They would need to contact you and ask for this.
We must have a copy of the letter sent directly to our office (not handled by students) and it must have a signature. A PDF file of your letter is acceptable as long as the letterhead and your signature both appear.
Most programs prefer letters from faculty members. If a T.A. is writing the letter, they generally ask that the faculty member in charge of the class provide the first signature and that it then be signed by the T.A. This indicates that although the T.A. wrote the letter and knew the student, the faculty member, who presumably has more experience assessing students, has reviewed the letter as well.
Students are encouraged to ask whether you would be supportive of their application and to bring you a statement of their plans and a resume. We also highly recommend that they ask you as early as possible.
ADVISORS: Students (especially for medical school) are often asked to supply an advisor's letter or a committee letter. Purdue does not offer these services. The advisor letter, at schools that offer this service, is not from their academic advisor rather it is from a health professions advising office. You do not need to provide this letter for medical schools. The individual letters that we mail are sufficient.