Advising

Your advisor can be obtained via accessing WINGS. Be sure to meet with your advisor at least once a semester. Be advised that it is ultimately your responsibility to be sure you have completed the correct pre-requisite courses as required for the medical school you want to attend. UW-L’s advisors specialize in Wisconsin and Minnesota schools; however, they can assist you in national schools as well.

The Pre-Medicine Committee
The Pre-Medicine Committee at UW-L is composed of faculty members that contribute to the curriculum of pre-med students. An undergraduate student at UW-La Crosse can choose to complete the pre-med curriculum in addition to their primary major, which is usually biology, microbiology, biochemistry, chemistry, or physics.

The eight member Pre-Medicine Committee consists of faculty advisers, a representative from the Office of the Dean of the College of Science and Health, and the Coordinator of the UW-La Crosse Pre-Medical Program. It is the responsibility of the committee to advise pre-med students regarding the content, sequence, and timing of specific coursework, the MCAT, and the application process. The current committee is composed of the following:

Again, these advisors are most familiar with universities in Wisconsin and Minnesota. If you would like to view the admissions requirements for other universities, you may access most allopathic US medical school homepages (then find the admissions link), listed alphabetically by state, by clicking here.

Requesting a Committee Letter of Recommendation
Students may choose to request a Pre-medicine Committee letter from any committee member. We recommend you choose the member that knows you best and preferably has had you in at least one class. If you don’t know anyone on the committee well, but still want a committee letter, you may ask the faculty member of your choice to be a guest on the committee. That faculty member must contact one of the Pre-medicine Committee members for instructions on authoring and submitting a committee letter. However, this person may not also write a separate personal letter, so if you go this route, make sure you have another academic person in mind, in case some schools require more than one academic letter.

Once a letter has been requested of the Pre-medicine Committee, the primary author writes the letter and submits it to the rest of the committee for editing and feedback. Once an appropriate time (usually 1 week) for feedback has passed, the primary author may submit the edited letter. The policy of the Pre-medicine Committee is that both the strengths and weaknesses of each candidate are portrayed respectfully to the best of our knowledge. The Pre-medicine Committee requires that the candidate waive his or her right to see the letter. If the candidate does not wish to waive his or her right to see the letter, he or she should seek a letter from a different source (see below). In a case where a medical school prefers or requires that a ranking form be submitted instead of a letter, the Pre-medicine Committee reserves the right to decline to submit rankings.

Students are not required to use the Pre-medicine Committee to author a recommendation letter. However, many medical schools prefer a committee letter and are used to seeing them from UWL. If you do not use a committee letter, you may ask any faculty member you know well to write an academic letter. However, you will likely need more than one.

Regardless of whether you choose to have a committee letter or just personal letters, be prepared to provide the following items to the author at the time of request:

  • A copy of your AMCAS and/or ACOMAS application
  • An unofficial transcript
  • Dates and scores of all MCATs attempted
  • A list of the addresses of the schools to which you want a letter sent OR the information for the letter service (such as Interfolio®) you are using.

Electronic copies of the items above are preferred. Note: The letter writing process may take up to a month from the time the primary author receives the above materials to the time the letter is sent, so plan ahead!