UMMS Student Handbook 2012/13

Student Fellowships and Awards

Each year, all medical students in the first three years of medical school are eligible for several awards:

• The Student Research Fellowship

Provides $5,000 for the support of a proposed research project, and $1,000 to travel to a meeting to present the results. The Medical School may submit one nomination; in past years UMass students have successfully won these Fellowships. Applications must be submitted to the AOA Councilor by December, 2012, for consideration.

• The Medical Student Service Project Award

Any student or group of students in the first 3 years may submit an application for a service project benefiting the medical school or the community. The medical school will submit one proposal per year; successful candidates receive $2,000, and may renew for a second year for $1,000, or a 3rd year for $500. The applications must be submitted by January 30th, 2013, to be considered.

• The Student Essay Award

This is an essay on any non-technical aspect of medicine, such as medical ethics, education, philosophy, culture, science, history, etc.

• The Pharos Poetry Competition

Any student may submit a poem to AOA for publication in the Society’s magazine, "The Pharos."

• AOA Visiting Professorship

The UMass Alpha Omega Alpha chapter has the opportunity every year to invite a nationally distinguished physician to spend one day at the Medical Center, give a public talk and a scientific lecture, and visit with interested students and faculty. C. Everett Koop and Judah Folkman have been AOA Visiting Professors at UMass.

ERAS is the electronic residency application service from the Association of American Medical Colleges.

ERAS is made up of four components: the Web-based Applicant site (called My85

ERAS), the Dean’s Office Workstation (DWS), the Program Director’s Workstation (PDWS) and the ERAS Post Office (ERASPO). ERAS opens in early July and can be accessed through the AAMC Web site (www.aamc.org). A Token Number is required to access My ERAS for the first time. UMMS students will be sent a token number in early July. Once the Token is received, students can log onto MyERAS using any Web browser and begin working on their CAF (Common Application Form) and Personal Statement.

The Office of Student Affairs is responsible for attaching supporting documentation (Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE), Letters of Recommendation, photo, UMMS transcript) to the ERAS application. Letters of Recommendation (LOR’s) are sent directly to Judy Holewa in the Office of Student Affairs. Once received, the supporting documentation is scanned into the students’ application and transmitted to the ERAS Post Office. Residency programs are able to download this information by connecting to the ERAS Post Office using their Program Directors Workstation. Program Directors can review, sort and print applications using criteria established by their program. Students are able to track the status of their application through the ADTS (Applicant Document Tracking System) in ERAS.

(* Revisions have been made to this section since the original posting date of 08/27/12)
The Medical Student Performance Evaluation is an important part of a student’s application for a postgraduate internship/residency position. In accordance with guidelines drafted by the AAMC, the letter is primarily descriptive rather than a personal letter of recommendation.

In addition to the student’s grades (which are also contained in the student’s transcript), the MSPE includes paragraphs describing some of the student’s achievements prior to coming to Medical School, selected research, school and community service activities during Medical School, and descriptions of clinical performance excerpted from narratives written by clinical clerkship and elective coordinators. The letter concludes with an endorsement at a level decided by a faculty committee.

The faculty of the University of Massachusetts Medical School have established these guidelines for the level of endorsement of their graduates for the Medical Student Performance Evaluation. These ranks may be considered as overall appraisals of student performance by a committee of the faculty, but they should not be considered as representing "quartiles" of performance. As these are criterion-based rather than competitive norm-based rankings of students, it is theoretically possibly for all students to be considered as "outstanding" or as "good." We consider this endorsement to represent the student’s performance as it will reflect functioning in a clinical position; therefore significantly more emphasis is placed on clinical than on preclinical academic performance. Because qualities other than purely academic average are also considered, the difference in academic averages of students between continuous ranks is small and may even overlap. Factors other than academic performance which may be considered at all levels of endorsement include special interpersonal skills and characteristics considered necessary for effective functioning as a physician, outstanding research or social service participation, or unusual strengths in the student’s chosen clinical field. Summaries of these criteria:

OUTSTANDING: Reserved for those students who have earned ratings of "Outstanding Performance" in most or all of the required core clerkships and whose clinical performance has been consistently above the expected level. Most of these students have also earned "Honors" in a majority of preclinical courses.

EXCELLENT/ OUTSTANDING: Those students who have done quite well and earned grades of "Outstanding" and "Above Expected Performance" in the majority of required core clerkships and usually many "Honors" grades in preclinical courses. Often this student shows increasingly strong performance as core clerkships are completed and fourth year /Advanced Studies status is attained.

EXCELLENT: These students have done very well academically, receiving a number of "Outstanding" or "Above Expected Performance" grades in core clerkships and often many "Honors" grades in preclinical courses. This student is considered highly competent.

VERY GOOD /EXCELLENT: The student has received one or two clinical grades of "Outstanding" or "Above Expected Performance" in core clerkships or electives and has successfully completed all preclinical coursework. This student has achieved a solid academic performance.

VERY GOOD: The student has successfully completed all coursework, generally at an "Expected" or "Credit" level. This student may have received ratings of "Outstanding" or "Above Expected Performance" in electives but generally has not received them in core clerkships.

GOOD: The student has met all requirements. Performance is considered acceptable at the current time.

RECOMMENDED: The student is considered competent to progress to postgraduate training but has needed significant additional support or has required a longer time to master both basic science and clinical skills.

(N.B.: Any grade of "No Credit" (preclinical) or "Fail" (clinical) must be remediated; a successful remediation from these grades will be noted on the transcript. In addition, any grade of "Below Expected Performance" in a clerkship must be remediated.

All clinical remediations from any previous grade are discussed in the body of the Medical Student Performance Evaluation).

The Medical School utilizes the AAMC guidelines for composition of the MSPE. In addition, the following guidelines were approved by the Executive Council of the Faculty in April, 1987 and amended subsequently:

1. Each student will be given the opportunity to read his/her letter before it is sent out and discuss it with the Associate Dean for Student Affairs or the Associate Dean for the Office of Undergraduate Medical Education.

2. Students will not be placed in categories of endorsement through any predetermined percentages, statistical curves, or class rankings.

3. Scores on Steps I and II of the United States Medical Licensing Examination will be mentioned in the letter only at the student’s request.

4. The letter will attempt to describe those themes which characterize and typify the student’s overall academic performance. Thus, negative comments will not necessarily be mentioned unless they are part of a pattern of performance.

URL: www.nrmp.org

The function of the National Resident Matching Program is to allow senior medical students seeking positions in the first year of graduate medical education and institutions offering positions an opportunity for each to submit a rank list to the NRMP specifying their order of preference. Virtually all of the nation’s hospitals and graduating medical students participate in the NRMP. The NRMP compiles this information to generate a "match" for the student and the residency training program using an applicant-proposing algorithm. The "matching" process is accomplished through the NRMP computer system. All NRMP correspondence is coordinated through the Office of Student Affairs.

Registration for the Match as well as submission of each student’s "Rank List" is done through the NRMP Web site: (http://www.nrmp.org). Registration for the Main Match is a three-step on-line process including completing a registration form, agreeing to the Terms and Conditions of the Match and payment of a registration fee. An e-mail address will be necessary for the NRMP to communicate quickly and easily with you if necessary. Students can register with the NRMP in August. In early February of the senior year, students will enter their rank list by computer through the NRMP. In March all seniors and residency programs receive the results of the computer matching process. A match generated through the NRMP is a BINDING agreement to attend that program. Please visit the NRMP’s Web site (http://www.nrmp.org) for more specific information pertaining to the NRMP matching process including important dates, deadlines and policies.

 USMLE Requirements for Match participation:

Students are required to have passed USMLE Steps 1 and 2 CK in order to participate in the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP). If a student does not have a passing score recorded in both examinations by the last date for submission of rank lists, the student’s name will be withdrawn from the Match by the Associate Dean for Student Affairs on the date the Match closes for rank list submission.