For students applying for admission to health profession schools for Fall 2009 entry and beyond please see the new Professional Letter Service  Web site. The Professional Letter Service has replaced the PHPAC. The PHPAC information in the pages below is for Fall 2008 entry to medical, dental, optometry and podiatry schools only. For further information contact Health Sciences Advising at (530)752-4100, Room 160 South Silo.

What Is It?
The PHPAC letter service is a system of compiling academic and personal information and coordinating letters of recommendation for students who plan to apply to dental, medical (including allopathic and osteopathic), optometry and podiatry schools. Although the service is optional, these health professions schools strongly prefer this system. Applicants to other health professional schools/programs should see a Health Sciences Advisor to discuss how to collect their letters of recommendation.

Committee
The Committee System was established to provide a comprehensive evaluation of applicants and provide some indication of their promise as professional school students. The information provided to admissions committees assists them in their evaluations; however, PHPAC committee members do not decide who should or should not be admitted to professional school. The Committee System is not a letter copying and mailing service. When applicants open a Committee File they are agreeing to be interviewed and to have a letter of evaluation written by a PHPAC Committee member. Based on the interview and the other information in the applicant's file (AMCAS application or equivalent, GPA calculation sheet, test scores, transcripts, and a minimum of three letters of recommendation) the Committee member then writes a letter of evaluation. This letter will be mailed along with the other letters of recommendation the student has solicited. Files may be established as either "confidential" or "non-confidential," which will be explained in detail during the file opening.

Fee
The fee for the PHPAC letter service is $175. This service fee includes:

• evaluation of admissions materials including
  reading of letters of recommendation
• an interview with a PHPAC committee member;
• maintaining all letters of recommendation in a secure location;
• sending letters to selected institutions (up to 15);
• maintenance of the file for three years after anticipated
  graduation date or the date the file was established,
  whichever is longer.

Supplemental fees for additional services are: $5.00 per packet mailed beyond the fifteen included in the basic fee and $20.00 per year to extend the file after the three year expiration date.

Applying Again
Reapplicants pay an additional $175 to reapply to any health professional program or to apply to another type of program in a subsequent year.

Who is eligible?
The PHPAC is open to registered UC Davis students and alumni only. To open a file, students attend an orientation and file opening session. During the session, staff will discuss how the service works, PHPAC policies, how many letters to solicit (and from what sources), what materials should be provided to potential letter writers, and the issues surrounding establishing your file as "confidential" or "non-confidential." Please note that the PHPAC letter service may be established to send letters to medical, dental, optometry and podiatry schools only. We do not send letters for employment, internships, scholarships, fellowships, graduate school or other health professional schools.

Information
For further information please refer to About The PHPAC Letter Service. To schedule an appointment for an orientation or file opening session, come to Health Sciences Advising, Room 160 South Hall or call
(530) 752-4100.

Mailing Address

Advising Services

Health Sciences Advising

160 South Silo

UC Davis

One Shields Avenue

Davis, CA 95616