Requesting Letters of Evaluation / Recommendation

Evaluations are important. They are personal statements about you as well as about your work. Think carefully about the evaluations you solicit. Medical school admissions committees are interested in academic achievement, motivation, suitability for a medical career, and those variables that make you an interesting person. There is no perfect number of evaluations. Think of those aspects of your work and activities you wish presented and who might do that best. Do not overlook areas outside the sciences. Your major field of study is especially important. If it is a science, an evaluation from a humanities or social science course will be helpful. Two science evaluations (preferably from course work or course laboratories) should be included, regardless of major. Also remember college deans, coaches, employers, volunteer activities, and research supervisors. Also, some medical schools require letters from all Research P.I.’s, so check school policies.

Whenever possible, ask for an evaluation letter in person. Give the person you ask a chance to talk with you. Prepare a succinct and brief autobiographical statement and resume which helps the writer understand your background. Most people appreciate this aid to memory. You might include some discussion of the development of your professional goals and your extracurricular interests.

Please keep in mind that:

• In general, a maximum of four recommendation letters is suggested with exception for MD / PhD programs

• Evaluations will only be accepted if attached to the Release Form (PDF).

• We forward in full every evaluation we receive. Once letters are received in our office they become property of the Health Professions Advisory Board.

• Evaluations are written exclusively for submission to admissions committees of health professions schools and health-related scholarship/fellowship funding agencies and may not be used for any other purpose. If you wish to have the recommendation on file at your college dean's office, you should give the evaluator a Yale College recommendation form, available in your residential college dean's office, as well as the HPAP evaluation form.

• Evaluations must be submitted on letterhead and must have an original signature.

• We will accept original evaluations ONLY directly from the writer.  They should be sent as separate documents to the address on the Release Form (PDF), or scanned and e-mailed as word attachments to ucs.profstudies@yale.edu.

• Evaluations should augment your academic record.

• The status of the writer is not as important as the content of the evaluation.

• You should ask those people who know you and your work best.

In accordance with the Family Rights to Privacy Act, applicants have the right to read letters of recommendation received and/or sent out about them. If you choose to have an open Yale University Health Professions Evaluation file, you may do so. Admissions committees, however, view confidential evaluations much more seriously, and the applicant should consider this very carefully, since HPAP will inform the medical schools that you have NOT waived your right to read the letters.

Note:  Health Professions Evaluation Request Release Forms and envelopes pre-addressed to this office are available at UCS. 

We upload a pdf file containing all Letters of Evaluation, along with the HPE Letter written by the HPAP office to VirtualEvals. With this system, letters are transmitted to most medical schools via the AAMC. However, there are some medical schools that do not participate in the AAMC letter process. These schools are able to download the pdf file directly from VirtualEvals.