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Note on Away Electives
 

More than half of all medical schools are now participating in the AAMC's Visiting Student Application Service (VSAS), along with a significant number of residency programs (not affiliated with a medical school) accepting applications only through this system. Once available, you will access the system via https://www.aamc.org/students/medstudents/vsas/. For a list of participating schools and directions on how to use the system follow this link https://www.aamc.org/students/medstudents/vsas/119290/article_for_host_institutions.html.

For all other schools, consult http://services.aamc.org/eec/students/ for a list of links to their elective catalogs and contact information. Your best bet is to search the web or call or write the school you are interested in.

If you have already arranged one or two away electives for a particular time and they are confirmed, you may wish to list at least one of them in Part A. Other away electives may be listed in part C. If you don't have anything confirmed before you turn in your form, and you probably won't, just list what you hope to do, for example:

AWAA 4001 Orthopaedics at UT-Southwestern

Please give as much information as you know at this point. We have classified away electives as four types:

AWAA  -- an away elective at a hospital affiliated with a U.S. medical school
NOTE: Approval through VSAS does NOT guarantee approval through the Office of Student Affairs since VSAS is accepting applications for non-medical school affiliated programs.
AWAB* -- military electives and any away elective at a U.S. hospital not affiliated with a medical school
AWAC* -- an away elective with a physician in private practice
AWAD* -- an away elective outside the U.S

If you are uncertain about the appropriate classification, please ask in the Office of Student Affairs.

*Although AWAA electives are automatically approved for fourth-year credit, you will need an approval code to add or drop this course designation. AWAB, AWAC, and AWAD electives must be approved at least 60 days in advance by submitting them on a Special Project Form to the Office of Student Affairs. To obtain approval, you must submit a description of the elective from the preceptor on the "Special Project" form. (The forms are also available in Student Affairs.) This need not be done before you receive your initial schedule, but approval must be obtained 60 days prior to the beginning of the elective. Regarding foreign electives (AWAD): We will review travel warnings issued by the US State Department and deny any elective request for travel to lands deemed hazardous to US citizens.

If you wish to request permission to do more than 3 months away, please contact Student Affairs.

Contact info for you on non-UT electives: be sure to come by Student Affairs a couple of weeks before you leave town to give us information about how to contact you and for us to give you an evaluation packet to take with you.

For electives at other places that start and end at times different from ours, you may split a vacation month around the away elective, or you may be able to find a local elective that would allow you to break it up around the away month.

Liability insurance: You are covered under The University of Texas System Professional Medical Liability Self-Insurance Plan with standard limits for medical students set at $25,000 per claim and $75,000 as the annual aggregate. Some institutions may require malpractice coverage that exceeds our standard limits, however, it is possible to purchase increased limits to meet needs of up to $2,000,000 per claim and $5,000,000 aggregate. For more information, contact Steve Jones in the Office of Student Affairs.

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