Health Professions Advisory Committee

Notice

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sonoma State University has transitioned to remote instruction through the Spring 2021 semester. Employees in the School of Science and Technology are working remotely in almost all departments. Email is the best way to communicate with our faculty and staff (search SSU's directory or our individual departments' pages for contact information). Please see the SSU COVID-19 site for more information.

To assist students in deciding what career they wish to pursue, SSU's Health Professions Advisory Program has a Committee whose members act as advisors. The Health Professions Advisory Committee (HPAC) is composed of faculty members, many of whom are involved in teaching courses that are taken by pre-health professions students. There is also a staff member in the HPAC office (Darwin 200) who oversees the administrative functions of the program.

In addition to advising, the Committee prepares the HPAC Letter of Evaluation which is a critical part of the application process for entrance into a health professions school. Most health professions schools place more value on the health professions advisory committee evaluation of a candidate than they do on separate letters from individual faculty members because of the broader perspective of the candidate by the committee, and because this one letter contains a summary of many recommendations.

Every spring, each student who is applying to health professions schools during the following summer and fall is given a practice interview with two to three of the Committee members present. Many larger universities do not offer either of these two services.