UNCW Pre-Health Professions
Advising Program
During either your Pre-Health Professions Freshman Seminar or initial discussions with your Pre-Health Advisor, you will be given instructions for building your customized Admissions e-Portfolio. Once you have the basic structure in place, you can begin to create and upload all types of documents. Initially, these will include a recent photo as well as a course syllabus and copies of projects, reflection papers, journal entries and other materials from freshman seminar. You will also create a link to your Pre-Health Professions Student e-Profile so you can update it regularly (at least once each semester).
As you move into sophomore and junior years, you will add annotated accounts of your clinical shadowing, volunteer, community service and leadership experiences, transcripts, a complete list of all of your academic and personal accomplishments and copies of your resume. As you begin applying to professional schools of health, you will draw from the information in your e-Portfolio to write drafts of your personal statement and to create a SpotLight Sheet that will provide critical insights about you to assist those who are writing your letters of recommendation. When you get invited for an interview, you will again turn to your e-Portfolio to prepare in-depth responses that are directly connected to your personal experience and academic training.
Your e-Portfolio serves as the repository for all of the critical information you will need to present yourself as being uniquely qualified for successful admission to a professional school of health. Three years is a long time. It is foolish to assume that you will simply remember the vast quantity of information necessary to create a winning admissions application. Chances are if you haven’t written it down and carefully filed it away, you will probably count it as lost. Form a habit of consistently updating and adding information to your e-Portfolio. When senior year arrives, you will be glad that you did!
The following is a list of the categories that will be represented in your e-Portfolio and a brief description of what should be contained in each category. Click here for detailed instructions for initial construction of your personal admissions portfolio.
Elements of Your Admissions E-Portfolio:
Student E-Profile
- Link to your Student e-Profile, updated at least once per semester
Academics
- Transcripts from all colleges attended including summer courses
Admissions Test Scores
- Dates of all professional school admissions tests scheduled, dates and scores of all tests taken
Accomplishments
- Academic honors including scholarships, Dean’s List, awards, recognition, etc.
- Clinical experience (not related to Seminar Series): shadowing, internships, volunteer experience, CNA training and experience, EMT training and experience, other; contact information
- Non-clinical volunteer experience: UNCW, Wilmington community, other locations; include specific contact information
- Community service: UNCW, Wilmington community, other locations; include specific contact information
- Leadership activities: specific positions held, length of service, duties performed; include specific contact information
- Other activities/interests: athletics, clubs, hobbies, non-clinical employment, study abroad, etc.; include specific contact information
Personal Statement
- Collect information for possible inclusion, include written reflections for each clinical shadowing, volunteer, community service or leadership experience
- Date and keep all drafts.
Resume
- Annotated (long) version
- Abbreviated (short) version
SpotLight Sheet
- Key points and information about you specifically for recommendation letter writers
- Constantly update with reflections and insights from your academic, clinical shadowing, volunteer, community service and leadership experiences
- Strive to catalogue many, many entries and think of them as a pool from which you draw to create specific sheets for specific letter writers
- Categories to consider when organizing your SpotLight Sheet. Make specific, detailed, well-documented entries that, together, paint a multi-faceted portrait of you and comprise elements of an interesting story that will enable your referees to compose letters that will captivate the reader’s imagination:
- leadership
- ability to work collaboratively
- honesty & integrity
- responsibility and dedication
- motivation
- empathy and compassion
- communication skills
- service to others
- problem solving ability
- exposure to the profession
- common sense and judgment
