Office of
Health Professions Advising

Faculty Letters

Three (3) academic evaluations from professors who have taught you in formal lecture courses, seminars, or independent study for credit are required for the HPA File of Evaluations. At least two of these letters must represent the natural sciences; they may include letters from engineering faculty. The third academic evaluation may be from a science or non-science course. At least two of the three academic letters must be from Duke instructors.

Do not include evaluations from teaching assistants. However, if you took a course in which a graduate student was the instructor responsible for the entire course (e.g., Writing 20), that graduate student may serve as an evaluator if you wish. And you may have a letter written by your recitation instructor in physics at Duke since they are all PhD’s in the department and get to know you better than the course director.

While most schools do not specify what courses must be represented in your academic evaluations, some state that letters from premedical science course work should be included. Therefore give careful thought to your choices, and be sure to include courses which are considered science courses for the purposes of AMCAS. While engineers may include letters from engineering professors, they should seek a balanced presentation including at least one letter from a non-engineering source. A third faculty letter should be from an arts or humanities course. All applicants should consider including a non-science evaluation to demonstrate the breadth of their education–valued by most, if not all, medical schools.

Internship, Research, Volunteer, or Work Related Letters

You may include a fourth evaluation and we recommend that you do. This might be a fourth academic evaluation or one from a research or clinical internship or a summer job in a relevant field, or a significant extracurricular activity. In choosing an accomplishment to have represented by this letter, take care that it parallels the emphasis in your application essay. For example, if you state your career goal as that of a dentist or physician in underserved areas and support your statement by describing a service project you did with an underserved population, your evaluations should include a letter from a faculty sponsor or administrative advisor to or director of that project. If you highlight a summer laboratory experience in your essay, it carries more impact if it is described and evaluated by the scientist with whom you worked.

Employer evaluations are not very useful unless that person acted in the capacity of mentor or teacher or unless the job you had involved working with patients or in a setting where interpersonal interactions were critical (e.g., camp counseling). An exception to this is the non-traditional applicant. If you graduated and are now working, you should plan to include a letter or letters from your current and former employer(s).

Please note that just because the “fourth letter” is listed last and is optional does not mean that it is less important than the “academic” letters listed above. In fact, this “fourth letter” may be the most important letter you have if it gives schools meaningful information that distinguishes you as an applicant.

It is worth mentioning that even if you are a candidate with strong academic credentials, you may appear quite non-compelling if your application is accompanied by letters of evaluation that don’t give a sense of who you are and if they make it clear that you didn’t make a very memorable impression on those who taught you.

“Personal” or Character References

A small number of schools ask applicants to provide character references, written by persons who have known them personally but who provide no information pertaining to their academic performance or other accomplishments. Such letters are not acceptable for inclusion in your Duke File of Evaluations, and should be mailed directly to the schools by the persons writing them. Likewise, if an alumnus/a of particular medical school offers to write to his/her alma mater on your behalf, the letter should not be included in the HPA File of Evaluations, but rather mailed directly to that school.

HPA Committee Letter of Evaluation

You have the option of requesting the Health Professions Advisor’s Committee Letter of Evaluation as an addition to, but not a substitute for, those described above.

All letters must be received with an Evaluation Form signed by yourself and your evaluator.