If you are a prehealth student at UB AND currently reside in the South Lake Village apartments, could you please contact Libby Morsheimer at The Office of Prehealth Advising Services at etm3@buffalo.edu at your earliest convenience?
Plans are underway for the fall Annual Prehealth Picnic for Sunday, September 13, and we would very much like to hold it at the South Lake Community Room. We need your assistance! Thanks so much in advance to anyone who can help.
As alluded to in a listserv announcement last week, it appears as though it would be prudent to alter our policy for sending letters to the central service of AMCAS (MD schools) and to individual DO medical schools.
In the past, we would ask for your completed Release Forms (one for MD schools; one for DO schools IF you were applying to both types of medical schools) and then stagger the transmission of these letters to the schools as we heard from you about the receipt of secondary applications.
Because AMCAS has now over 117 schools in their letter pilot program, and it appears as though we cannot no longer select each of the 117 individual schools, we will be sending your letters all at once when you submit the required paperwork, even if you have not yet received a secondary applications from the schools. To avoid any further confusion, we will follow the same policy for the DO schools to which you are applying. There is no harm in transmitting the letters before you receive secondary applications as the schools can elect to download or not download the letters we provide for them.
We apologize for any confusion this may cause. The change has really come about as the system we are using to transmit your letters (VEClient) has changed its relationship with AMCAS this year. So as to avoid any further confusion, we will treat DO schools in the same manner.
If you have already submitted the necessary paperwork to our office and wish for us to NOT transmit your letters at this time, please let us know (e.g., you are waiting on additional letters to be submitted on your behalf). Otherwise, if you have your completed forms in, we will forward your letters to all your AMCAS schools indicated as well as your DO schools.
If you wish, you may submit your AMCAS (MD) Release Form and Letter ID Form separate from your DO Release Form. We will then we send letters intended for AMCAS and letters intended for the DO schools out at separate times.
If you have any questions whatsoever, please email Libby (etm3@buffalo.edu) or Jinny Majewski (vmajewsk@buffalo.edu).
CYSTIC FIBROSIS: Patients 12 and older are being recruited for a clinical trial of a promising investigational treatment for cystic fibrosis. Drucy Borowitz, clinical professor of pediatrics, is heading the Buffalo trial site.
EVENTS
EYE DISEASES: Associate professor James Reidy will discuss diseases of the eye Wednesday evening in a lecture sponsored by the Newman Center.
Dr. Jim Weir, Assistant Dean for Admissions, LSU School of Dentistry, has announced LSU’s participation in ADEA-AADSAS, effective immediately. Individuals wishing to apply to LSU for the 2010 entering class may now designate LSU inside the AADSAS application. More information about the LSU School of Dentistry can be found at their website and in the ADEA Official Guide to Dental Schools.
Anne Wells, Ed.D.
Associate Executive Director
Division of Educational Pathways
American Dental Education Association
Please consider checking the “ YES ” box on the 2010 AACOMAS application to authorize release of your data to the prehealth advising office at UB. This allows our office to report anonymous, group data regarding application and admission rates for current and prospective students. All information is held confidential.
Please see below:
“ I authorize AACOMAS to release information about my application to pre-professional health advisors at the colleges and universities that I attended to assist in the counseling of future applicants.” Yes
Additionally, please note that if you applied for the entering class of 2009 and are re-applying, you will be able to use a “roll-over” (carry over info from last application) feature, but you must “enable” pop-ups on their computer.
Gina M. Moses, M.Ed.
Associate Director of Application Services
American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine
If you are planning at some future time to apply to a professional health school (e.g., medical, dental, optometry, podiatry, chiropractic, vet) AND come through the University at Buffalo Prehealth Committee , we are planning to convert to a NEW SYSTEM for the submission of your individual letters of recommendation.
As many of you know, you are required to submit 4-7 individual letters of support for your Prehealth Committee application. To this point, our office has directly accepted and collected such letters for you. As of AUGUST 3, 2009 (tentative date), we are planning to convert to new system whereby you will create a secure account and your evaluators/letter writers will fax or email their letters to centralized letter collection center. If you waive your right of access to your letters (advised), you will not be able to view the content of your letters, but you will be able to regularly check as to how many letters have been submitted for you. You will also be able to see who submitted letters for you and when. This will then allow you to follow-up regarding any missing letters before our stated deadlines.
If you have already requested/arranged to have letters submitted to us in support of a future Prehealth Committee application and instructed your recommenders to send to our office directly that is not a problem. However, any letters you request beginning AUGUST 3, 2009 FORWARD should be sent through the new system.
Please look for future listserv and blog announcement about this conversion and for the instructions as to how to set up your secure, online letter account.
Just a few quick points:
1) When you have submitted your AMCAS application and have received at least one secondary application (or been prompted to complete a secondary), please fill out and submit the Release Form to our office in 109 Norton Hall. Please ALSO complete and turn in the AMCAS Letter ID Form found in the actual AMCAS application as opposed to just providing your AMCAS Letter ID Number.
*** Note: We became aware just yesterday that once we submit a Committee packet to an MD school, your letter packet may be transmitted to all other MD schools you have designated at the same time. AMCAS and the individual medical schools are aware of this. Due to this change in VirtualEvals processing for 2010, it would actually result in your letters arriving to the other schools earlier (not later) than previous years. We will confirm our understanding of this and send out a follow-up notice to you ASAP. If this is the case, we do not need to stagger the transmission of your letters to each individual MD school as previously indicated. This seems to be true only for the MD schools, not DO. If you are applying to any DO schools, please also submit a completed Release Form listing all your designated DO schools and notify Virginia (Jinny) Majewski via email (vmajewsk@buffalo.edu) about your receipt of any DO secondary applications. As we hear from you about the receipt of DO secondary applications, we will forward your packet to those specific schools.
The UB Reporter features on article on Erin Topley, a UB 2009 dental school graduate, who has written a book of cartoons poking fun at the life of a dental student. Click on the lighter side of dental school to read more.
HEART REPAIR
UB researchers have demonstrated for the first time that injecting adult bone marrow stem cells into skeletal muscle can repair cardiac tissue, reversing heart failure.
NEW NEURONS
UB researchers have identified a new mechanism that prompts brain stem cells to differentiate into neurons, raising possibilities for new treatments for Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders.
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