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Pre-Med Advising

Welcome to the Pforzheimer PreMed page!


The Premed team at Pforzheimer House exists to aid and mentor Pforzheimer students and alumni who are thinking about medical school and careers in medicine, and especially those who are currently applying to medical school. Feel free to contact the resident tutors in medicine, whose bios can be found below. Read on for more information about getting in touch with us, other resources at Harvard, exploring medicine as a career, application timeline, FAQs, external resources, and more (some portions under development). We look forward to meeting you!

Resident Tutors in Medicine

General premed questions are welcome at our shared email account: pfohopremedcommittee@gmail.com.

Non-Resident Tutors in Medicine
We are lucky to have many Non-Resident Premedical Tutors who are committed to helping you navigate your way through the process of preparing for and applying to medical school. Generally, you will be matched with a Premed Non-Resident Tutor ~1 year prior to your intended year of applying to medical school. If you do not have a Non-Resident Tutor, and plan to apply in an upcoming application cycle, please contact Mengting Qiu. You can also contact Mengting with any questions regarding Non-Resident Tutor advising.

OCS Premedical and Health Careers Advising
In addition to House resources, Harvard has wonderful professional resources available at OCS: the Directors of Premedical and Health Career Advising, Oona Ceder and Emiko Morimoto. They can be reached at: premed@fas.harvard.edu. Additional information about their advising hours can be found here. The MCS Premed Webpage has a wealth of information, and this should be your first go-to point of reference.

Premed Mailing Lists
We encourage you to subscribe to the Pfoho Premed mailing list here: https://web.lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/lists/pforz-premed-info.lists.fas.harvard.edu/. Information about clinical opportunities or other healthcare career related information will be sent here. This is also our primary means of keeping in touch with premed alumni. If you are graduating soon, please subscribe also with a non-Harvard College email address! OCS also keeps a mailing list for applicants (instructions to subscribe here). You are welcome to subscribe even if you are not currently applying, but the information is mostly geared towards those who are.

Application Information
If you are planning to apply to medical school in the 2024-2025 application cycle to start medical school in 2025 Summer/Fall, and you have not yet been in touch with the Pfoho Premed Team, please contact us ASAP at pfohopremedcommittee@gmail.com.

TIMELINE FOR 2024-2025 APPLICANTS (see applicant checklist for more details):

December 2023: Pfoho Premed Applicant Meeting. If you missed this meeting, reach out to pfohopremedcommittee@gmail.com for meeting content.

January – February 2024: 1:1 applicant meeting with a resident tutor. A resident tutor will be assigned to you for this meeting, and they will reach out during this time period. As these meetings usually take 60-90 minutes, thank you in advance for your patience as we work to schedule everyone in. If you have not had an applicant meeting by late February 2024, please reach out to us at pfohopremedcommittee@gmail.com.

February 2024: Look at the schedule of OCS workshops for applicants in the spring semester (see here). This includes workshops on the personal statement, selecting schools, and AMCAS. We highly recommending attending these.

February – March 2024: Download and work on PfohoApp and GPA Worksheet. 

March 2024: Latest time we recommend for you to take your MCAT.

April 2024: Pfoho App and Letters of Recommendations (other than letters from spring semester professors or recommenders you have gotten to know recently) are due to the House Office on April 1 by 11:59PM.

After your Pfoho App has been submitted, the Academic Coordinator will contact you with the link to a google sheet that will be used for further communication and record keeping (the “Communication Spreadsheet”).

IMPORTANT: If you submit your House application packet later than April 1st, this may delay your Committee Letter and may put you at a disadvantage in the application process.

May 2024: Letters of Recommendation from spring semester professors (or recommenders you have gotten to know recently) are due in the House Office by May 1 by 11:59PM. Letters arriving after May 1 cannot be guaranteed inclusion into the House Committee Letter.

April – May 2024: Think about and work on your AMCAS, including your personal statement and activities list. Seek feedback early on your personal statement, and ask a few different people for feedback. AMCAS opens in early May; you can start filling out (but cannot submit) then.

Late May – Mid June 2024: Finalize school list and submit AMCAS. AMCAS opens in late May for submission. We recommend you submit early, within the first few days to two weeks of it opening for submission. However, do not rush your submission. A slightly delayed submission is much better than an unprepared one. If you’re having any trouble with submitting your AMCAS by mid-late June, please reach out to us at pfohopremedcommittee@gmail.com.

July 2024: Summer updates for transcripts and test scores, and AMCAS Letter Request Form due to the Academic Coordinator on July 1. If you submitted your AMCAS early, you will start getting secondary applications. We recommend a turnaround time of <2 weeks for secondary applications, but again, do not rush your submission.

August 2024: Continue work on secondary applications. House Committee Letter uploaded to AMCAS on August 15 by 11:59PM.

September – October 2024: 1:1 mock interviews with a Resident Tutor, and Quad-Wide Mock MMIs. Keep an eye on your email for information on both.

Fall 2024 – Spring 2025: Interviews! Please feel free to reach out to us with any questions. We will also periodically reach out to you to check in, and we would appreciate your prompt responses.