Santanna Patterson
Biological Sciences, Senior
Santanna Patterson
Since I started at DePaul, I always knew I wanted to apply to medical school. After learning more able the application process and talking to my pre-health advisor, I learned that obtaining a committee letter of recommendation is an important document to have in your application. Lucky, DePaul has the Pre-Health Advising Committee, otherwise known as “PAC”, where you can go through an application process to receive a committee letter of recommendation. Because I am applying for medical school, my PAC application process mimicked the application process for medical school. The process included: creating a portfolio, doing an online interview, and having an in-person interview.
After signing up for PAC during fall quarter 2017, I began to design my portfolio. The portfolio contains all academic information, all of your relevant experiences and activities, short essays, and a personal statement. At first, I thought that creating my portfolio would be simple because I was compiling information I already knew. However, creating the portfolio took weeks to perfect because writing about yourself is very difficult. I kept asking myself, how do I tell my story to someone who does not know me at all? I found that there was so much to say, but that I was limited with how many characters I could use. I decided to use the Writing Center in order to help me stay within my character limit without taking away the information I thought to be important. For any future PAC applicants, I would highly suggest starting your portfolio as early as possible because it will take longer than you expect to complete it.
After I submitted my portfolio, I was sent a link to complete the online interview. The interview consisted of 4 or 5 questions and you are given 3 attempts to record yourself answering the questions. This part of the process was very nerve-racking because I am not used to talking in front of a camera. Fortunately, you are able to watch the video you recorded and determine if that video should be kept or re-recorded before it is submitted. I found that after answering the first question, I become more comfortable with the platform and my answers began to flow more naturally. In hindsight, I think it would have been a great idea to record myself answering practice questions before this stage in the process.
The last step in PAC (and in my opinion, the scariest part of the process) was the in-person interview. During the interview, the interviewers ask a wide variety of questions, ranging from questions about yourself to questions about the current policies in the medical field. I spent the entire week leading up to my interview preparing for any possible question that might be thrown my way. Dressed for success, I felt confident going into my interview. It was not nearly as stressful as I thought it would be since I was well prepared.
After all of the stages of the process were complete, I met with my mentor to get feedback on my performance during the entire PAC process and to see if I received a committee letter. Doing PAC not only helped me prepare for medical school applications and interviews, but it also allowed me to see just how much I have accomplished in my four years at DePaul. Seeing how much I have learned and experienced as an undergraduate student was fascinating and made me excited for what I will experience in the future!
To learn more about the Pre-Health Advising Committee, visit: https://csh.depaul.edu/student-resources/advising-student-services/pre-health-advising/pre-health-advising-committee/Pages/default.aspx