VirtualEvals

Q. Who has access to an applicant’s letters?

A. Only the health professions schools that the sending school attaches to an applicant record have access to that applicant’s letters.

Q. What is the cost for health professions schools to participate?

A. There are NO fees for health professions schools.

Q. Do applicants have access to VirtualEvals?

A. No. VirtualEvals was specifically designed so that only advisors and health professions schools access the system, not applicants.

Q. Will this save my institution money?

A. Most sending schools have find that VirtualEvals is more cost-efficient than conventional means of transmitting letters. We encourage you to calculate the cost of copying the many packets of letters and postage (including last minute overnight mailings) for sending letters conventionally and compare that to what you would pay as a user fee for VirtualEvals.

Q. Will this save my institution time?

A. Yes. Depending on how many applicants you have each year, using VirtualEvals could save you many hours that you would have spent at the copier as well as filing and refiling folders.

Q. What Health Professions Schools participate in VirtualEvals?

A. Please see the lists of participating schools in the Site Menu of the VE homepage.

Q. Is there user support in case of questions or problems?

A. Yes. We will continue to provide user support for questions and resolving problems. You may email help@virtualevals.org or use the “contact us” link on the home page.

Q. Are other health profession schools going to join VirtualEvals in the future?

A. We are open to recruiting other health professions schools/programs and are currently doing that. If you know of a school/program that you would like to see use VirtualEvals, please let us know by emailing help@virtualevals.org. You should also encourage the school/program to contact us.

Q. Do I need a particular scanner to scan my documents?

A. If you already have access to a scanner, chances are it will be sufficient for your needs. However, depending on the size of your applicant pool, you may need a scanner with an automatic document feeder. The scanner we have used at Duke quite successfully is the HP Scanjet 7650 and we can highly recommend it. You should check with your IT staff before purchasing any scanner to be sure that it is compatible with your computer system.

Q. After uploading letters for an applicant, can I add another letter?

A.As of the 2009 application cycle, you may post  “additional” letters for applicants.  Please review this section in the Instructions for Sending Schools.

Q. What happens to the letters at the end of an application cycle?

A. The applicant records and PDF’s are purged at the end of the application cycle. We do not archive PDF’s that have been posted to VirtualEvals since there is no reason to do so. However, by creating PDF’s for your applicants’ letters, you will have an archive of those letters available in your office.

Q. Can I add a school to an applicant record after the PDF for that applicant has been uploaded?

A. Yes. You may go back into an applicant record to add additional schools. There are instructions for doing that inside the VirtualEvals site.

Q. Can I use a student’s Social Security number as one of the unique identifiers?

A. No. For security purposes, Social Security numbers should never be used on an applicant’s record. As most of you know, this is not an issue specific to VirtualEvals. Many institutions are now prohibiting the use of SSN or SSI and VirtualEvals was designed with that in mind. In addition, some health professions schools have requested that we ask senders not to include an SSN in the PDF that you transmit to them. If you must use some form of SSN on the document you post, please use only the last 4 digits.

Please note that as questions arise we will be adding to this list of FAQ’s.