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Professional Evaluation Form

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Before You Begin

Professional Evaluations (sometimes called Letters of Evaluation, Letters of Reference, Professional Evaluation Forms, or Letters of Recommendation) are submitted by the evaluators themselves; they cannot be completed or submitted by the applicant or another party on behalf of the evaluator. We are not responsible for verifying evaluators' identities. If a discrepancy is found, we reserve the right to contact the appropriate individuals to investigate and to share the discrepancy with all programs.

Before getting started, consider the following:

  • All Professional Evaluations are submitted electronically by evaluators using Liaison Letters, our Recommender Portal.
  • Research each program's requirements. You should determine whether your programs have specific requirements regarding evaluator roles or relationships before listing evaluators on your application. Many programs have strict guidelines and completed evaluations cannot be removed or replaced.
  • Choose your evaluators early in the application process to ensure they have adequate time to submit your Professional evaluation.
  • Prepare your evaluators. Once you choose your evaluators, be sure to inform them about the process and that they will be completing the Professional Evaluation electronically. We recommend getting their preferred email address and asking that they monitor that inbox for your Professional Evaluation request (which will come from support@adeapass.myliaison.com), including any junk or spam folders.

The Professional Evaluation Process

When you request Professional Evaluations, your evaluator receives an email request with a link to Liaison Letters. Evaluators review your requests, and then accept, complete, or deny them.

The Professional Evaluation Form (PEF) requires evaluators to comment on ten attributes (integrity, professional demeanor, clinical skills, reaction to criticism, didactic knowledge, critical thinking, interpersonal skills, organizational skills, self-awareness, and maturity). Evaluators rate each attribute as Exceeds Expectations, Meets Expectations, Does Not Meet Expectations, or Not Observed along with remarks about those attributes. Additionally, evaluators can provide an overall recommendation on your behalf.

Once your evaluator completes your Professional Evaluation, you'll be notified via email. You can check the status of your Professional Evaluation requests in the Statuses section of your application at any time.

Requirements

You are required to request at least 3 and may request a maximum of 5 evaluations. If you want to submit more, send those additional evaluations directly to your programs.

Please note that you are also required to request an institution evaluation.

Submit a Request

  1. In the Professional Evaluation Form section, click the plus sign.
  2. Enter the evaluator's full name and email address, if necessary.
  3. Select the date by which you would like this evaluation completed. This date should be before your program(s) deadline.
  4. Enter a brief message for the evaluator.
  5. Select whether you want to waive your right of access to the Professional Evaluation. See Waiver below.
  6. Click the sliders to indicate your permission for us (and schools) to contact your evaluators.
  7. Click Save to submit it. Once you do so, an email is immediately sent to the evaluator.
  8. Confirm with your evaluators that they received the email notification.
  9. Use the Program Status Details section to monitor the status of your Professional Evaluations. Completed Professional Evaluations are marked as "Complete" and have a Complete Date listed. Follow up with your evaluators if their evaluations are still marked as "Requested" or "Accepted." It is your responsibility to ensure that Professional Evaluation requests are received and completed on time. We will not notify applicants about missing Professional Evaluations.
Resend the Professional Evaluation Request

If you need to resend a request:

  1. In the Professional Evaluation Form section, locate the request you wish to resend.
  2. Click the pencil icon to edit the request.
  3. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Re-send.
Change the Evaluator's Email Address

If you entered an incorrect email address for any evaluators (or if any evaluator asks that you send the request to a different email address), you must delete these requests and then re-add them with the correct email.

Waiver

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) is a federal law that provides certain rights to students who are attending post-secondary education institutions, including the right to inspect and review education records. Under FERPA, unless you choose to waive your right to inspect and review, you will have a right to access evaluations submitted with your application after you begin attendance at a dental school if that school saves applicants’ evaluations post-enrollment. Prior to requesting any evaluations, you are required to indicate whether you wish to waive the rights you will have under FERPA after you are admitted to and attending a school. ADEA PASS will release to your evaluators and designated programs your decision to waive or not waive access. Your waiver decision serves the same purpose as a legal signature and is binding.

Selecting Yes indicates to programs that your evaluator completed their evaluation with the understanding that you would not be able to view it. This means you will not be able to see the content of the evaluation. Programs may view an evaluation for which you have waived your right of access as a more accurate representation of your qualifications.

Selecting No indicates to programs that your evaluator completed their evaluation with the understanding that you may choose to view it in the future after you obtain the right to do so under FERPA. Selecting this option does not allow you to view your evaluation during the application process as FERPA does not give you the right to inspect evaluations submitted to a school until you are admitted to and attending that school. If you do not waive your right to view the evaluation, you may ask your evaluator for a copy of the evaluation, although your evaluator is not obligated to provide a copy. Programs may view an evaluation for which you have not waived your right of access as a less accurate representation of your qualifications.

Once you make a selection, you can't change it, so consider the choices carefully.