Engage with HPAC

HPAC Pre-Health Guide

HPAC is here to help you as your begin your pre-health journey, exploring the health professions, all the way though the process of preparing your medical/dental/PA or other health professional school application. This Pre-Health Guide (self-enroll through Canvas) is designed to help you at all stages of your pre-health journey. If you are accessing Canvas for the first time, please request access and then enroll.

Each module can be completed at your own pace but is designed for different stages of your pre-health journey. The different modules are:

-Getting Started	-Dental School Application (For current Dental applicants)
-Application Readiness	-Physician Assistant (PA) Application (For current PA applicants)
-Medical School Application (For current MD and DO applicants)	-Cornell Letter Packet (For current medical, dental, podiatry, and optometry applicants)

*In the taxonomy graphic above, HPAC is defined as utilizing workshops, events, webinars, appointments, pre-health advisors, the Peer Health Peer Leaders, and the pre-health peer community.

Meet with HPAC

For First Year/Incoming students:

We encourage you to take the first semester and acclimate to Cornell. In the meantime, here are our recommendations for engaging with HPAC:

Pre-Health AMAs (Ask Me Anything). These have been strategically scheduled around important semester dates. This is where you can meet with HPAC advisors!
Meet with Pre-Health Peer Leaders during their office hours to get answers to frequently asked questions.
You can find a list of all HPAC events, including schedules for AMAs and PHPL office hours here. You are welcome to attend any event we offer.
Learn about what resources we offer and when you should utilize them in your pre-health journey.
Do research on different health professions including course and program requirements, length of training, cost of education, etc. Find out more here.
Work through the “Getting Started” module in the Pre-Health Guide, developed specifically for first year/incoming students.
For help with selecting pre-requisite courses, visit our academic preparation page. We recommend meeting with your home college/school to determine how to fit these courses into your schedule to meet major, distribution, college, and graduation requirements. These vary across colleges/schools, so please meet directly with your academic/major advisor.
The first year is a time to settle into Cornell and explore. When you’re ready to engage in experiential preparation, visit our page here.
Sign up for our newsletter to hear about events, opportunities, and relevant information for exploring, preparing, and applying to health profession schools.
Follow us on Instagram!

Due to limited resources, we are unable to meet individually for 1-on-1 pre-health appointments with first year/incoming students. In your first year at Cornell, we encourage you to take the time to explore and set yourself up for success. All of our web and Canvas materials are designed to guide you through the initial phase of your pre-health journey. As you progress, we will continue to provide digital resources and welcome you to meet with us when preparing to apply to your chosen health profession school. Please note, we have carefully curated resources and events to support first year/incoming students, based on frequently asked questions. We look forward to connecting with you at one of our events!

HPAC Bookings Policies:

To serve as many students and alumni as possible, please review the HPAC Bookings policies before scheduling an appointment:

ALUMNI: please continue using netID to make Bookings appointments in all places that ask for your email. GMAIL is no longer supported for netIDs, however, netIDs will remain active. You may use Outlook to access your Cornell emails. Please use your netID so that your appointment can be confirmed and a Zoom link generated. Please contact CIT if you have questions or need assistance with troubleshooting.
Only 1 appointment per person with an HPAC pre-health advisor may be held at any given time.
Please do not schedule an appointment with HPAC if you have an appointment already scheduled. Duplicate appointments will be canceled.
Please send any materials relevant to the meeting (and that are uploaded to Canvas) via email to the advisor you’re meeting with at least 2 business days in advance. Please send materials in pdf or word doc format (please do not Google share). We may need to cancel your meeting if materials are not sent in advance.
Appointments may only be scheduled up to two weeks in advance. You will not see appointment availability beyond 2 weeks, and the month / semester may appear full. Please check back regularly to see available appointments as they open each day for two weeks out.
You will receive an email reminder from HPAC before your appointment. Please be sure to check your spam folder in case an email is sent there.

  Cancelation Policy: Please cancel at least 48 hours in advance. If you must cancel within 24 hours, please send an email to prehealthadvising@cornell.edu or directly to the advisor you are scheduled to meet with.

Please find the appropriate meeting type to book below.

ALUMNI: please continue using netID to make Bookings appointments in all places that ask for your email. GMAIL is no longer supported for netIDs, however, netIDs will remain active. You may use Outlook to access your Cornell emails. Please use your netID so that your appointment can be confirmed and a Zoom link generated. Please contact CIT if you have questions or need assistance with troubleshooting.