MCY Clerkship Assignment Policy

  

Overview/Rationale

VP&S assumes responsibility for the selection and assignment of medical students to clerkship locations in the MCY phase. Curricular Affairs fulfills this responsibility and assigns student clerkship sequence and locations through a lottery system that allows for students to express preferences in the order that they complete clerkships and the clerkship locations. There is a process whereby a medical student with an appropriate rationale can request an alternative assignment when circumstances allow for it.  

Accreditation Standards

LCME Accreditation Standard 10.9: Student Assignment 

Stakeholders

Medical students 

Clerkship directors 

Procedures

Students are informed of the MCY lottery process and processes for alternative assignment requests through a class meeting and a written MCY lottery handbook.  

Phase 1: Group Lottery  

During this first phase of the lottery, students will rank in order of preference each group/grid(link is external and opens in a new window) that determines the order of clerkships. Only MD track students participate in this phase of the lottery. After results are released, students may swap grid/group assignments during the swap window period. Swaps are made anonymously through OASIS.   

Phase 2: Top Choice Site Lottery   

All students will complete their Medicine, Neurology, and all subspecialty (Anesthesiology, Neurosurgery, Orthopedic Surgery, Ophthalmology, Emergency Medicine, Otolaryngology) clerkships at NYP locations.  Some core clerkships (OB/GYN, Psychiatry, Pediatrics, Surgery, Primary Care) include NYP and affiliate sites for clerkship locations, and students will be assigned to these sites through the lottery. In this second phase of the lottery, students will rank their top choices for one clerkship site. Only MD and OMFS track students participate in this phase of the lottery.   

After site lottery results are released to students, there will be a swap period during which students may swap clerkship site assignments with students in their same grid/group. 

Phase 3: Fill Lottery  

This phase of the lottery will fill students’ four remaining core clerkships with site assignments through a lottery system. MD, OMFS, and MD/PhD track students will be assigned their remaining clerkship sites though this phase of the lottery.   

This phase runs independently from the previous phase and is run through the OASIS lottery program based on remaining clerkship/site combinations available to each grid/group. After Fill lottery results are released, students are given a final window to swap clerkship-site assignments with classmates in their clerkship group.  

  

Policy History/ Approval Date:  

The policy on scheduling MCY clerkships Assignments was taken from print-version student handbooks and online formats.  These documents were reformatted and codified into policy where specific procedures and edits were added.  The policy was reviewed and approved by the Committee on Educational Policy and Curriculum on April 19, 2024.