New Third Year Selective

​Thank you for your interest in proposing a new School of Medicine course. Below please find information about the course approval process. Questions may be directed to the Electives Coordinator.

The Approval Process

All new selective clerkship proposals are reviewed by the Electives Committee (EC). The EC meets regularly during the academic year. Please submit all paperwork as early as possible (preferably five months in advance of the quarter in which you wish to offer the course). You will be notified if the course is approved. Upon approval, SOM staff will be in contact with you to coordinate student enrollment in your course.

Definition of a Third Year Selective

Clinical selectives are immersive experiences designed to give students exposure to specialties outside of the core clinical curriculum early enough to help students with career decisions. The objective of a clinical selective is to provide an introduction to a particular specialty, with a focus on the key clinical topics.

When planning your curriculum, please keep the following in mind:

  • Selectives are two weeks in length, and students receive three units credit upon successful completion of the course.
  • In their third year, students take 2 two-week selectives in the same academic quarter they take Surgery 401.
  • Selectives may be offered only during the first or last four weeks of the quarter.
  • Beginning in the 2011-2012 academic year, one of the selectives must be in a surgery or surgery-related field.
  • Grading is Pass/Fail only (no Honors grades are awarded).
  • Third year medical students must be excused as follows: 1) to attend their Primary Care course one afternoon per week (either Tuesday or Friday); 2) to attend Surgery M&Ms (Wednesdays until 10:00am); and 3) to take the Surgery Shelf exam (last Friday of the quarter only).
  • Be sure course schedule complies with UCSD School of Medicine's policy on medical student work hours.

Required Paperwork

Please type all forms and submit via email to the Electives Coordinator.

Additional Information

Policy on Course Directors

The course director must have a UCSD School of Medicine faculty appointment in the appropriate series. For example, instructional titles in the appropriate series include: salaried UCSD School of Medicine professors, professors in residence, professors of clinical _____ (e.g., medicine), clinical professors, adjunct professors. Faculty members who hold instructional titles of any rank in the appropriate series can direct courses. Voluntary clinical faculty members are not considered as having the "appropriate instructional" titles to serve as sole course directors of UCSD School of Medicine courses. Questions regarding this UCSD policy may be directed to Denise LeStrange.

Resources for Course Development

The Office of Educational Development and Evaluation provides assistance with evaluations and course and faculty development. For more information, please visit the MedEDTechEval site.

For Reference

Current Medical Student Elective Requirement