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SOM Home > Office of Student Affairs > Office of Records and Registration > Electives > Guidelines for Senior Electives


Guidelines for Senior Electives

A.   General Policies, Senior Course Requirements, and Senior Program Scheduling

  1. Year IV begins on July 1, 2003 and ends on May 31, 2003.  In contrast to the Year III rotations, each senior year course follows the calendar month, beginning on the first of the month and ending on the last day of the month.


  2. Students are required to take a minimum of eight (8) months of course work during this academic year.  Each period is one month in length.  If a student elects a clerkship of six weeks duration, he or she will be awarded only one month of academic credit.  Thus, completion of two 1 1/2 months elective earns only 2 months of elective credit, not 3 months of credit.  The eight months of course work must include at a minimum:

    a.  Three required senior courses (see below)

    b.  Five elective courses.  These courses must constitute a balanced program of study.  Generally, no more than two courses can be taken in any specialty or subspecialty.  The goal of the School of Medicine--and your goal as well--is to graduate medical school as a competent but undifferentiated physician, ready to begin postgraduate training in any discipline.  Irrespective of the advice of faculty members who may be advising you regarding residency application, you will not be allowed to complete an unbalanced senior program that has you concentrating only on your intended career choice.

  3. All of the clerkships are designed for five to seven full days each week.  No vacation or other travel (e.g., interviewing for residencies, travel to/from other sites, etc.) are allowed during elective or required YR courses unless prior arrangements in writing are made with the course director and approved by the Assistant Dean of Clinical Education.


  4. Each student must work with his/her designated senior program advisor to develop his/her curriculum proposal.  Of course, students are free to consult other faculty members for advice as well.  The roster of senior program advisors is found elsewhere in these guidelines.  The process for submitting your requested senior program  to the lottery system for determination of your final senior program is described in a subsequent section, below.

    a.  After the lottery is completed and the senior required and elective programs are disseminated in the spring of 2003, no changes will be allowed for other than extenuating circumstances to senior programs during the months of July and August.

    b.  At the present time, there will be no changes in required course schedules at any time in the academic year.

    c.  Changes to elective courses after September 1, 2003 will be allowed following procedure and policies to be announced later.

    d.  After all assignments are made, senior student's programs are reviewed for content and balance by the Year IV Committee.  Final approval of each proposed student program will be determined by the Year IV Committee.

    e.  Unapproved or incomplete senior programs will be modified by students at the designated time and place to be announced elsewhere.

    f.  Students who will not complete all required Year III courses and requirements by June 30th of each academic year must have their Year IV proposed programs signed by the Office of Student Affairs prior to submitting their proposed program into the lottery request system.

  5. There are three required senior courses:  (1)  An Inpatient Medicine Subinternship course in the departments of Internal medicine, family medicine or pediatrics:  no other inpatient medicine course will be accepted for this Subinternship requirement (2)  Out-patient (Ambulatory) Medicine, and (3)  Emergency Medicine.  These requirements must be fulfilled from the list of courses below.  No other courses can be substituted for these three required courses.  These courses complete the sequence of required courses begun in YR III.

    a.  General Internal Medicine may be taken at Detroit Receiving, Sinai/Grace, Harper, Veterans Administration, Oakwood, St. John, William Beaumont, Bon Secours, St. Joseph Mercy (Pontiac), Huron Valley, Children's, Henry Ford or St. Joseph Mercy (Ann Arbor) Hospitals.

    b.  Ambulatory Medicine (Outpatient Medicine) sites are arranged individually with the Department of Internal Medicine.

    c.  Emergency Medicine may be taken at Detroit Receiving/Children's, Sinai/Grace, St. John and William Beaumont Hospitals

  6. Once assignments of these required courses have been made, this schedule cannot be changed except in the case of extenuating circumstances.


  7. Students are required to allow for time for residency interviews during the month of November, December or January.  Therefore, one of these months must be taken as a vacation period designated for residency interviewing.  In general, course coordinators will not allow time off during an elective or required course for interviews.


  8. No clerkship can be dropped once it has begun.  Any clerkship approved for a student's senior program MUST be taken, and students cannot shorten their programs at a later date.  Thus, if a student signs up for 9, 10, or 11 months of coursework he or she WILL BE REQUIRED to satisfactorily complete that number of clerkships.


  9. No more than three (3) months can be designated as AWAY electives.


  10. Up to two months may be taken in research clerkships listed in the Year IV Brochure or arranged with a research mentor.


  11. It is the student's responsibility to contact the coordinator of the clerkship regarding the date, time and location to report to on the first day of the course.


  12. The School of Medicine Administration has designated several institutions other than the Detroit Medical Center within the Detroit Area as offering HOME ELECTIVES.  These courses are not treated as AWAY electives, and additional School of Medicine approval to take these clerkships is therefore not required. Hospitals in the Detroit Metropolitan area which are designated as offering HOME elective beyond those courses already listed in the Senior Elective Catalog include Henry Ford Health System, William Beaumont , St. John, Oakwood, Providence, Bon Secours, North Oakwood, St. Joseph Mercy (Pontiac)  and St. Joseph Mercy (Ann Arbor) Hospitals.


  13. Each student is required to pay the full tuition for Year IV, irrespective of the length of his/her program.  In addition, each student is to pay any fees required by other institutions for courses taken there.  



B.   The Elective Lottery

  1. The dates for entering your requests into the lottery selection process will be disseminated by e-mail.  A class meeting will be announced and held to discuss the senior program scheduling process and the lottery system.


  2. The recently-developed web-based system will be used by students to input their approved proposed senior program for a random lottery that is held to assign senior students to their required and elective senior courses.  The requests are input in several phases as follows:

    a.  In the first phase, students enter prioritized request for required senior courses (location where the rotations will be done and times [periods] when they would like to do them, and months that they plan to take off during their senior year.

    b.  After the Phase I random lottery is complete, the assignments of required courses and months off is disseminated to each student.  Following that, students enter between 5 and 10 courses they would like to try to schedule for their senior year.  Although five courses are required, students are encouraged to enter more than five (to a maximum of 10) since if only five are entered and one or more is unavailable, the students senior program will be incomplete.

    c.  These choices are handled in 10 rounds of a Phase II lottery.  In each round, an attempt is made to place the student into his or her requested elective at that priority.  The scheduling process can be driven by location or by time period, as determined by each student.

    d.  The results of the Phase I and Phase II lotteries re then returned to students, and any student with an incomplete program because their choices could not be filled will be given the opportunity to fill his or her senior program by meeting with the School of Medicine personnel at the scheduled time and place.  This session will only be to complete senior programs, and will not be used by student to change the schedule they received unless an error was made in the lottery process.

  3. Each time the lottery is run, students are assigned a random number.  Their requests for course placement are then handled in order based on the assigned lottery number.  Lottery numbers are reassigned after Phase I, and after each round of Phase II.  At each round, the course request of the student with the highest lottery is checked against the inventory of spots available.  The student is either placed or not, and the request of the next student in sequence is then examined.  After the attempt has been made to place all students in a round, new lottery numbers are assigned and the process is begun in the next round.


  4. Senior program advisor are to be selected from the roster published elsewhere.  The senior advisor's name and signature must be indicated on the Elective Program Worksheet, indicating his or her approval of your senior program.


  5. Additional important points to consider regarding the scheduling process include the following:


    6. a.  If you plan to do up to three AWAY elective, it is your responsibility to make all arrangements regarding the elective, including approval by WSU School of Medicine.  No credit will be given retroactively for courses taken but not approved before the start of the course.

    b.  When you intend to take an AWAY elective, indicate that on your lottery Worksheet and block the particular period so that nothing else is scheduled at that time.

    c.  Monitor the situation with regard to your AWAY elective requests carefully.  If you determine that you will not get a requested AWAY course, you must propose a substitute for that course which is then added to your program using the mechanism for course changes specified in this program guide.  (This is an example of the extenuating circumstances for which changes will be allowed after approval of the senior program).

  6. Results of the computerized scheduling system are final.


  7. Students who fail to submit their courses requests by the date disseminated for closing the lottery will not be allowed to enter lottery requests at a later date.  For the required course lottery, their course selections will be filled afte the completion of the computer-run of the students whose proposals were submitted on time.  In essence, students will be given whatever choices remain for the senior required courses.  These students will then meet with the Assistant Dean for Clinical Curriculum to schedule their elective program after all other scheduling is completed.

C.   Procedures For Taking Clerkships Not Listed In The Wayne State University School Of Medicine Elective Catalog

  1. Elective courses (NOT required courses) may be taken at another university, hospital or medical school.


  2. Once a proposed senior curriculum including AWAY electives is approved by the YR IV Committee, written approval to take an AWAY clerkship at a particular site must still be obtained from the appropriate department chair (or his or her designee) at WSU or the Assistant Dean for Clinical Curriculum prior to submitting the guest application to the proposed host institution.  Thus, the YR IV Committee approves the plan to take a senior course, while the corresponding Department or the Dean's Office office approves the details of the planned course.


  3. The WSU AWAY elective request form and all materials required by the proposed guest institution must be submitted to the Office of Student Affairs for final request approval and mailing.  The Office of Student Affairs maintains a file of all completed requests and gives the student a copy of the application materials.  Individual schools may request health or immunization records, proof of current health insurance or malpractice insurance, academic transcripts or a fee.  The Office of Student Affairs will help you arrange to have those materials forwarded to the host institution.  Be certain to read host school requirements carefully and comply with the policies in addition to all WSU School of Medicine policies.


  4. The AAMC Extramural Electives Compendium (usually released in March or April of each academic year on the web) contains detailed information regarding the application, approval processes, deadline dates, etc. for taking guest elective at all accredited US and Canadian schools.  Copies will be available in the Office of Records & Registration, the Office of Student Affairs, Student Organizations Office and the Shiffman Library.  Most medical schools also post their senior year curriculum guide and elective offerings on their institutional web-site.  The web address is:  http://www.aamc.org/. 


  5. Only one AWAY clerkship request form will be processed for a given month.  You are advised to list alternate courses in the same department when making your requests.  By doing so you will avoid having to secure multiple chairs' signatures for a given month and maximize your choices at a given institution.


  6. WSU AWAY elective forms are available in the Office of Records & Registration and the Office of Student Affairs.


  7. The Office of Records & Registration must receive written confirmation of your acceptance as a guest student from the institution at least four weeks prior to the scheduled starting date for the clerkship.  Please be sure to monitor this requirement carefully.  If you do not obtain written confirmation by one month before the start of the elective, contact the Office of Student Affairs or the Office of the Assistant Dean of Clinical Education for assistance.


  8. As with all other clerkships, failure to attend an approved clerkship will result in an unsatisfactory grade.  That unsatisfactory grade will be made u in a HOME clerkship.


  9. Students will be given credit only for those AWAY courses for which they have registered and which appear on their approved Senior program.  If changes are made or imposed in their programs by the host institution, the Office of Records & Registration must be notified immediately.



D.   Special or Restricted Year IV Programs

  1. The Clerkship Committee, Year IV Committee, Promotions Committee and the Office of the Associate Dean for Academic and Student Programs (including the Assistant Dean for Clinical Education) are empowered to alter senior programs to guarantee the highest possible academic achievement and knowledge of the graduates of the Wayne State University School of Medicine.  This includes alterations both to help remediate academic difficulties or clinical weakness.


  2. Students who have not completed Year III by June 30 of each academic year or who have an unresolved unsatisfactory grade in any Year III clerkship or whose performance on the end-of-year Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) indicates a need for remedial work or who have had other significant academic difficulties will be required to do one or more of the following:

    a.  Must make up the deficiency by November 1 of his or her senior academic year.  This includes OSCE remediation.

    b.  May be required to revise their previously approved Year IV program to make up a deficiency.

    c.  May be required to take a prescribed program during their senior year.

    d.  May not be allowed to take AWAY electives

    e.  Take all senior clerkships (required or elective) at Detroit Medical Center Hospitals.



  3. No student can receive Year IV credit for Year III make-up work.  Year IV clerkships can not be substituted for Year III clinical core clerkships.


  4. As stated elsewhere in these curriculum policies, no Year IV credit will be granted until all Year III requirements, courses and deficiencies have been completed satisfactorily.  Any deviations from this policy must be with the prior written approval of appropriate administrative officials of the School of Medicine.

E.   Changes to Your Senior Program

  1. The Year IV Committee will review the programs for balance, and require changes for those programs which are not adequately diversified.  If the Assistant Dean for Clinical Education or Year IV Committee determines that the program is unbalanced, changes to that program must be made.  The Assistant Dean for Clinical Education and/or your Counselor in the Office of Student Affairs will assist you in complying with the requirements of the Year IV Committee.


  2. Once a program is proposed and approved for the entire year, no changes will be made during the first two months of the senior year (July and August) except in the case of extenuating circumstances.
  3. For those students wishing to make an elective course change during the remainder of their senior year, program changes may be submitted using procedures to be detailed elsewhere.  You will be informed of the procedure for senior program changes at a later time as these are currently in development as part of the new web-based lottery and medical student information system.


  4. As stated in the general policy section above, it is your responsibility to plan a balanced senior year program, since you are graduating as an "undifferentiated physician" from medical school.  Take this into consideration when planning your senior elective program so that you will not be required to make changes at the end of the year to correct an imbalance.


  5. It is also the student's responsibility to know the requirements for completion of the senior program, the requirements for awarding the medical degree, the requirements for graduation, and the rules regarding away electives.  Do not procrastinate and put off completion of these requirements until the end of the year when you have insufficient time to complete them before graduation.



F.   Travel To and From AWAY Electives

  1. If travel time conflicts with the completion of one elective period and the beginning of another, permission must be obtained from the faculty member in charge of the elective from which time will be lost for travel prior to beginning the course that will cause the conflict.


  2. Students may accept stipends for travel, room and board, etc., from host institutions of AWAY electives.  However, paid clerkships or externships are not acceptable as official clerkships.  If you get paid for an elective, you cannot also receive course credit for that elective.

G.   Grades in Senior Elective Courses

  1. Students will be evaluated in their respective senior required clerkships and electives, using grading policies and procedures detailed above in section II of these policies and procedures.


  2. In addition, you are required to complete an evaluation of each elective course you complete during your clinical years.  This requirement applies to both junior and senior elective courses.  The policies and procedures for evaluating elective courses will be modified as new online evaluation systems become available.  Until notified of the availability of the new system, The Office of Records & Registration will supply appropriate evaluation forms which students are to use to evaluate courses.  No grade will be recorded by the Office of Records and Registration until the student has completed the evaluation form for that clerkship.


  3. Students must receive a grade of Satisfactory and/or Honors in all senior required and elective courses, even if the student elects to take more than five (5) elective courses.  In other words, you must satisfactorily pass every course you sign up for in the senior year.


  4. When a student receives a grade of Unsatisfactory or Incomplete in a senior elective, it is report to the Assistant Dean for Clinical Education for possible disciplinary or remedial action.  The student must meet with appropriate administrative officials such as the Assistant Dean of Student Affairs or the Assistant Dean for Clinical Education before the curse is repeated.  A grade of Unsatisfactory received in an AWAY clerkship must be made up in the corresponding department at the WSU School of Medicine.   All makeup work for unsatisfactory senior courses will be completed at HOME; no remedial course work may be done as an AWAY elective.  In addition, an Unsatisfactory grade received in any senior elective or required clerkship  may lead to the Year IV Committee recommending to the Promotions Committee that the student's program be modified to correct the deficiency.


  5. Any unsatisfactory clerkship must be repeated successfully before graduation.


  6. A grade of Unsatisfactory in a clerkship could result in a delay of graduation, withdrawal from the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP), dismissal from medical school or other disciplinary action as determined by the Promotions Committee.



H.   Changes To These Curriculum Guidelines

CHANGES MAY BE MADE TO THESE GUIDELINES FOR THE JUNIOR AND SENIOR CLINICAL CURRICULUM AT ANY TIME.  THE ADMINISTRATION WILL NOTIFY YOU BY E-MAIL WHEN A CHANGE HAS BEEN MADE.  YOU SHOULD PERIODICALLY CHECK YOUR E-MAIL AND THE WEB PAGE FOR POSSIBLE CHANGES TO THESE POLICIES AND PROCEDURES.