1. LETTERS OF EVALUATION PROCESS FOR
MEDICAL/DENTAL SCHOOL APPLICANTS
Brief Outline of Enclosed Information
Action item Page number
1. Creating an account with Interfolio 2
2. Requesting a letter from an evaluator 3
3. Requesting your HPO Cover Letter 5
4. Regarding letters of evaluation sent to 5
the Health Professions Office and
reapplicants
5. TMDSAS Document Request Form 6
(applies to TMDSAS applicants only)
6. Uploading Your AMCAS Letter 7
Request (applies to AMCAS applicants
only)
7. AMCAS: Assigning Your Letters of 10
Evaluation (applies to AMCAS
applicants only)
8. Uploading your AADSAS Letters of 12
Evaluation Matching Form (applies to
AADSAS applicants only)
9. Sending out your letters to the 14
professional schools
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2. 1. Creating an account with Interfolio:
Go to our home page (http://cns.utexas.edu/hpo) and click on the “Interfolio Instructions” link at the bottom of the page.
Then click the link that says “Click here to sign-up” to create your account.
• Our special offer code, which is automatically inputted (UTCNS), is applied so that you may take advantage of any
special offer that the University of Texas Health Professions Office has with Interfolio.
• For “Terms of Service,” check off that you agree.
• For “Affiliation,” University of Texas—Austin, Health Professions, should be automatically entered. If for some
reason it is not, contact Interfolio at 877-77-FOLIO to make the change.
• Once you create your account, go to “Account Settings” and then “Edit my info” to include any of your relevant
application ID numbers (TMDSAS, AMCAS/AAMC, AADSAS, AACOMAS).
• If you created your Interfolio account through the TMDSAS application and your Interfolio account settings
don’t indicate that you are affiliated with University of Texas--Austin, Health Professions, please contact Interfolio
at their toll-free number (877 77 FOLIO) so that they can correct this for you.
This is very important, because if you are not affiliated with our office we cannot review your letters.
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3. 2. Requesting a letter from an evaluator:
• From your Interfolio homepage, click on the “Documents” tab at the top of the screen. Then click on the “Add
Document” tab.
• Select document type: “Confidential Letter of Recommendation.” Although you have the option to choose “Non-
confidential letter of recommendation,” we always recommend that you choose the confidential letter option.
• The document title for all academic evaluations should conform to the following style:
Dr. [Last name]-[SUBJECT TAUGHT]
EXAMPLE: Dr. Professor-CHEMISTRY
• The document title for requests to non-academic evaluators (such as job supervisors, volunteer coordinators, or health
professionals) is your choice.
• Due to the frequency of email requests being blocked by spam filters, we strongly recommend printing up the request
form and giving it to the evaluator (in person, by mail, or by fax).
• Click on “Create placeholder and generate request form.”
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4. An Interfolio evaluation request (“document request”) form will appear onscreen. This is the form that you print and
submit to your evaluator. Note that you do have the option to save the form as a PDF in the event you need to send the
form electronically to an evaluator.
• This unique form has a special ID number, as well as your name, the date, and the title of the request for evaluation
printed on it.
• The form instructs your evaluator on how to submit their letter.
• They can do this online or through the postal mail (to Interfolio in Washington, DC).
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5. 3. Requesting your HPO Cover Letter:
Do NOT request your HPO cover letter until your committee packet is complete. To clarify, this means you
have the requisite three (3) academic letters, of which at least one (1) is from a science professor/instructor.
REMINDER: To qualify for a Health Professions Committee cover letter from our office, you are required to have the following
documents in your Interfolio account:
(A) Three (3) academic letters of evaluation. These should be from university-level faculty members and instructors who
have taught you in a class for which you received course credit and can compare you to other students. Academic or
health professions advisors are also acceptable.
(B) At least one (1) of these academic letters MUST be from a science faculty. Many out-of-state schools require two (2)
science academic evaluators. These science evaluators must fall into one of the following categories: Biology,
Chemistry, Physics, Math, Biomedical Engineering, or Chemical Engineering. [FOR OUT-OF-STATE SCHOOLS,
PLEASE CHECK WITH THE INDIVIDUAL SCHOOLS TO CONFIRM THAN BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING
AND CHEMICAL ENGINEERING PROFESSORS FULFILL THEIR SCIENCE EVALUATOR CRITERIA.]
(C) At least one of these academic evaluators must be from UT Austin.
• From your Interfolio homepage, click on the “Documents” tab at the top of the screen. Then click on the “Add
Document” tab.
• Select document type: “Cover Letter.”
• Title the document: HPO Cover Letter
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• For document format, select “3 Party Document Addition”
• Print up the request form generated; write your TMDSAS/AMCAS/AACOMAS/AADSAS ID numbers (whichever
are relevant to your situation) legibly somewhere on the page; and submit it to our office in PAI 5.03 in person, by
mail, or via fax (512-471-6701).
• The HPO will then check that you have the required letters of evaluation in your Interfolio account, and if you meet the
requirements listed above, we will upload your cover letter. This process generally takes 1 – 2 business days.
• Once all of your letters are in your Interfolio account and we have uploaded your cover letter, it is up to you to send out
your packet of letters to the schools you are applying to by going to the “My Deliveries” tab on Interfolio.
Specific information about deliveries using Interfolio is explained on Page 12 of this document.
4. Regarding letters of evaluation sent to the Health Professions Office and
REAPPLICANTS:
If you believe that any of your letters of evaluation were sent by mistake to the Health Professions Office rather than to
Interfolio, or if you are a reapplicant who still has paper letters on file in our office, PLEASE CONTACT US IF YOU WOULD
LIKE THOSE LETTERS UPLOADED TO YOUR INTERFOLIO ACCOUNT. Email us at hpo@mail.utexas.edu to make the
request and make sure to mention the specific names of the evaluators whose letters you would like us to upload.
Reapplicants should also be sure to request a new cover letter for their Health Professions Committee packet, even if they still
have one in their Interfolio account from the previous application cycle. If your letters are more than 2 years old or have
already been used for 2 application cycles, you will need to get new letters before requesting our cover letter.
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6. 5. TMDSAS Document Request Form (applies to TMDSAS applicants only)
The Letters of Evaluation section of the TMDSAS application will ask you some specific information about your letters. Please
select the appropriate options, as outlined in these instructions.
• Select “Health Professions Committee packet” from the options offered.
• Under “Letter of Evaluation” select “University of Texas at Austin*” from the pull-down menu.
• Click “Request Form” and the application service will indicate that your request has been submitted. You may print up
the form for your personal records, if you like, but you will not need to include it in your letters packet or submit it
anywhere. Because the UT Austin Health Professions Office is already affiliated with Interfolio, our students
should ignore this form once it has been generated. Creating the empty placeholder by simply generating the form is
sufficient. Do not delete the placeholder after you create it.
• Under “Extra Letter” indicate that you will not be submitting an extra letter.
• Click “Save and Continue.”
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7. 6. Uploading Your AMCAS Letter Request (applies to AMCAS applicants only)
Section 6 of AMCAS will ask you some specific information about your Letters of Evaluation. It important for you to follow
these steps to ensure that your Interfolio packet will arrive at the AMCAS schools:
After choosing “Yes”, you will be prompted to choose between a “Committee Letter”, “Letter Packet”, OR “Individual Letter”.
Choose the “Committee Letter” option and click “Continue”:
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8. At this point you will choose “University of Texas At Austin” from the pull down menu and click “Continue”:
You will then be asked to provide some specific information about our Health Professions Office here at UT-Austin.
To clarify, the Health Professions Office director is Dr. Ray Easterlin, the email address is hpo@mail.utexas.edu , and the
contact phone number is (512) 471-3172. Providing this information accurately to AMCAS will ensure your letter will be
appropriately matched with your account.
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9. After completing the following information you will then be asked if you want to prepare and print your Letter Request Form.
Select “Yes”.
Once the PDF document has been generated save the document to your desktop. You are now ready to upload the AMCAS
Letter Request Form into your Interfolio account.
Within the Interfolio system, under the “Documents” tab, select the “Add Document” tab and type the appropriate information
listed below, browse your desktop to find the AMCAS Letter Request Form, and upload the document to Interfolio:
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10. 7. AMCAS: Assigning Your Letters of Evaluation (applies to AMCAS applicants
only)
After you have designated within AMCAS that you will be using the “Committee Letter” option and have included all the
appropriate information you are told:
“You have not yet assigned this letter to any medical schools.
You will be able to assign this letter to medical schools in the Medical Schools section of the application.”
#######
After clicking “Done” on the previous page, you will then be asked which AMCAS schools you will be applying to. After
answering some simple questions about that particular AMCAS institution and advancing to the next part of the application, you
will be asked to “Select Your Letters of Evaluation/Recommendation for XXXX College of Medicine.” (In the example listed
below we have used Baylor College of Medicine.)
Please choose the option “Ray Easterlin, HPO Packet (#######)” and click “Continue.”
#######
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11. At this point you will be shown a summary page that indicates where you are applying and if the school has been assigned the
proper Health Professions Packet from UT Austin. It also gives you the option of adding more schools if you choose to apply to
additional institutions. When you have completed this section, click “Done.”
Proceed to Section 9 (page 14) of this instruction document for instructions on how to send your letters to AMCAS using
Interfolio.
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12. 8. Uploading your AADSAS Letters of Evaluation Matching Form (applies to
AADSAS applicants only)
The AADSAS application will ask you for some specific information about your letters of evaluations. It important for you to
follow these steps to ensure that your letters of evaluation packet will be delivered accurately to AADSAS.
• Select “PAPER” as Reference Type
• Select “WAIVE your right of access” to see your letters (this means they are confidential)
• Reference title/name: DR. RAY EASTERLIN
• Contact info for form: 1 University Station A2900, Austin, TX 78712; 512 471-3172; hpo@mail.utexas.edu
• For “Is this a committee letter,” select YES
Once you have submitted this information and generated your AADSAS LOE Matching Form, print up the document, fill it out
and sign it as needed, and then scan it into PDF format. Save the PDF version of your completed Matching Form to your
computer’s desktop. You are now ready to upload the AADSAS LOE Matching Form to your Interfolio account.
(AADSAS LOE Matching Form instructions continued on next page)
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13. Within the Interfolio system, under the “Documents” tab, select the “Add Document” tab. Choose “AADSAS Letter of
Evaluation Form” from the “Select Document Type” pull-down menu. Then browse your desktop to find the AADSAS LOE
Matching Form, and upload the document to Interfolio:
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14. 9. Sending out your letters to the professional schools:
From your Interfolio homepage, go to the “Deliveries” tab at the top of the screen. Click on “Add a Delivery” and
continue following the instructions onscreen.
Make sure to include your HPO cover letter at the front of your letters of evaluation packet when you send them
out to the schools to which you are applying. You will do this by simply selecting the HPO Cover Letter document
along with the evaluation documents when you are prepared to send your packet. Additionally, you have the ability to
select the order that your letters will appear in your packet by clicking on the blue arrows.
When you submit your Health Professions Committee packet to the medical and dental application services and
individual schools, please make sure you request and include your HPO committee cover letter. The professional
schools will not accept your letters of evaluation as a Health Professions Committee letter/packet if the HPO cover letter
is not part of your packet. Not including the HPO cover letter will cause your packet to be incomplete and will
delay the processing of your application.
The fastest option for sending out your letters to the professional schools and services is electronic. Most schools will
accept your letters electronically from Interfolio. However, if a school will not accept letters of evaluation electronically
from Interfolio, you will be given several different postal mailing options to select from.
NOTE TO AADSAS APPLICANTS: Make sure to fill out and sign your ADEA Matching Form (which is part of the
AADSAS application) and upload it electronically to your Interfolio account or else mail it to Interfolio so they can
upload it for you. This form should be included at the front of the HPO committee packet that you send to AADSAS. If
you are applying to AADSAS schools, you should send your letters directly to AADSAS itself and NOT to the
individual schools you are applying for. These schools have a centralized letters of evaluation procedure.
NOTE TO AMCAS APPLICANTS: Most AMCAS schools (including Baylor) are now participating in the centralized
AMCAS Letters Service program that requires you to send your letters directly to AMCAS, rather than to those
individual schools. The Interfolio system should automatically prompt you on how to accommodate these schools. It is
important to include your AMCAS Letter Request Form at the front of your packet when sending to AMCAS. Please
note: There are still a few schools not participating in the centralized AMCAS Letters Service; for those schools, you
will send your letters packet directly to the individual schools themselves.
Interfolio asks students submitting letters to AMCAS to type in the AMCAS Letter ID number for each document you
are sending as part of your letters packet. You will type in the same number (found on the form you generated in Action
Item 6 on Page 7 of this document) for each document. AMCAS views your Health Professions letters packet as a
single entity, which is why all of your letters should be assigned the same AMCAS Letter ID number.
NOTE TO TMDSAS APPLICANTS: As you are filling out the online TMDSAS application, you will be prompted to
generate a TMDSAS Document Request Form. Although it is important to generate the form, you do not need to do
anything with it. You can keep it in your personal files if you like or simply discard it, but as a UT Austin student you
do not need to submit it with your letters packet to TMDSAS. However, please do not delete the committee packet
placeholder that will be generated in your online account when you create the form.
(continued on next page)
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15. (TMDSAS delivery instructions, cont.)
When you are ready to send your letters packet to TMDSAS, you will send your HPO cover letter and letters of
evaluation directly to TMDSAS and NOT to the individual school you are applying to. This service has a centralized
letters of evaluation procedure.
NOTE TO AACOMAS APPLICANTS: If you are applying to AACOMAS schools, you should send your letters to
the individual schools you are applying to and NOT to the service itself. This service has a decentralized letters of
evaluation procedure.
AACOMAS AADSAS AMCAS TMDSAS
Requires form NO YES: YES: NO; it is important to
to be submitted Matching Form Letter Request generate the Document
with letters Form Request Form, but do not
packet? actually include it in your
packet
Where does To individual To AADSAS To AMCAS To TMDSAS directly
student send schools directly directly for schools
letters packet? using AMCAS
Letters Service; to
individual schools
in all other cases
(For additional help, contact Interfolio via their online Help Desk or by calling 877-77-FOLIO
You may also contact the UT Austin Health Professions Office at 512-471-3172 or hpo@mail.utexas.edu.)
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