STUDENT RESOURCES

Connect with the Health Professions Advising Office as early as possible in your preparation planning for graduate school in the Health Sciences.

We work with students through every step—from the earliest exploratory stages, to searching for programs, to compiling courses and identifying experiential learning opportunities, to assembling and submitting applications.

Career Exploration and Preparation

Start Your Research

There are several health professions organizations that provide information about the profession and links to graduate programs. These are good resources for beginning your search, learning more about graduate program preparation and helping you make an informed decision.

Attend Information Sessions

We host a variety of information sessions and events for students interested in the health professions. Speakers include admissions representatives and alumni in local health professions programs.

Get Connected

The HPA Blackboard site is the central location for current students to read announcements, schedule appointments, find forms and learn about events.

Current students, log into Blackboard with your Villanova credentials. Under "Available for Self Enrollment,” you’ll find the Villanova HPA course and should select "enroll."

Apply

The Health Professions Advising Office provides a comprehensive and detailed application guide on the HPA Blackboard site. Below are some highlights of the application process.

Complete an admission test: To enhance the advisory process, please release your scores to the Health Professions Advisor

• Medical College Admission Test (MCAT)
• Optometry Admission Test (OAT)
• Dental Admission Test (DAT)
• Graduate Record Examination (GRE)
• Pharmacy College Admission Test (PCAT)

Attend information sessions: The HPA Office will offer a series of helpful, and in some cases required, information sessions on topics including:

• Assessing your readiness to apply
• Letters of evaluation/recommendation and the committee letter
• The application process

Receive a committee letter: A committee letter from the HPA Office is most important for medical and dental applicants, but it is also valuable for all other professional pathway applications. To receive a committee letter, students must meet deadlines set in the spring semester preceding application cycle.

• Last Monday in February: Submit your portfolio to the HPA office.
• March – May: Sign-up for a committee letter meeting with the Health Professions Advising team.
  
• May 31st: Candidates are informed of their committee letter rating.
• Summer – early fall: HPA Office works with applicants to submit their professional school applications.
• Sept. 1st: Applicants must submit their professional school application.

Transcripts and Letters of Recommendation

• It is the student’s responsibility to have transcripts sent from the Registrar’s Office directly to the health professions application service.
• Depending upon the professional school application process, the HPA Office will collect up to five individual letters of evaluation/recommendation to be uploaded/mailed along with the committee letter in support of the candidate's application. Letters for some programs are submitted by the individual recommender directly to the application service.