The Canyon

Instructions for Writing a Biomedical Professions Committee Evaluation

The student who has asked you to serve on his/her Biomedical Professions Evaluation Committee is an applicant to medical or other health professional schools. To these schools, the composite committee evaluation is the single most important recommendation, and the quality and insight of your comments will have significant bearing on whether a student is invited for an interview.

The student should schedule a 30 to 45 minute appointment with you and with two other faculty for a one-on-one interview. He or she should write your name, department, P.O. Box, phone, and email on the Committee Assignment form, should return the original to the Office of Biomedical Professions, and should give you a copy, so that you have the contact information for the other two committee members. In addition, the student should give you:

Please do not interview the student until you have all four items.

The interview's special function is to evaluate the non-cognitive aspects of a student: character, motivation, commitment, sensitivity. Difficult and open-ended questions may be asked, but the student is not expected to have definitive answers to the health care problems facing the nation. He or she should, however, show evidence of having given thought to these problems. The interview is not intended to be stressful, and is usually a learning experience. This is the student's opportunity to explain irregularities on the transcript, and you may use evidence of academic ability in your evaluation. Questions pertaining to gender, race, or religion are not appropriate.

The committee consists of two faculty members chosen by the student and a third faculty member, previously unknown to the student, who is assigned by Monica Bai, Coordinator for Biomedical Professions. After interviewing the student, the second and third evaluators send their comments to the committee chair, who will write a one to one and a half page composite evaluation based upon the observations of all three evaluators. When completed, the chair will email the evaluation to Monica.Bai@nau.edu.The evaluation will be formatted onto the Biomedical Professions Evaluation form, then circulated among the evaluators for their approval, signatures and ratings.

THE RATINGS: Each Committee member will individually rank the student and sign the evaluation. The ratings are:

"5"
 Exceptional (1 out of 10 applicants)
"4"
 Strong (2 out of 10 applicants)
"3"
 Acceptable (Acceptable for health professions school admission)
"2"
 Acceptable with Reservations (Acceptable for health professions school although there are a few areas the school should be aware of which should be described in the text)
"1"
 Not recommended (rare, but necessary; deficiencies must be delineated)

The text should support the ratings - both strong and weak.

When signed, the Committee Evaluation is returned to the Gateway Student Success Center (building 43) - Office of Biomedical Professions, P.O. Box 4097. The Office will be responsible for the timely mailing of recommendations to medical and other health professions schools.

Interviews are to be held in the spring semester wherever possible, as it is highly advantageous for the student to apply early. The final evaluations should be in the Office of Biomedical Professions a month after the interviews. An effort will be made to assign fall interviews to students applying late.

In the case of a student not gaining admission to a health professions school, the student does not need to re-interview the following year.The same committee evaluation will be sent. If a student would like a new committee evaluation in the first year, s/he must first meet with Monica Bai to discuss his/her overall application and must approve the new evaluation. If the student is reapplying two years later, however, it is recommended that new interviews be arranged.

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