Electives Policy

  

Overview/Rationale

The medical curriculum includes electives opportunities for students that supplement required learning experiences and allow for students to gain exposure to and expand their understanding of medical specialties and pursue their individual academic interest.   

Accreditation Standards

LCME Accreditation Standard:

6.5 Elective Opportunities

11.3 Oversight of Extramural Electives  

Stakeholders

M3 and M4 medical students 

Faculty 

  • Clinical: 
    • Sub-internship: The student will function as part of a team on a teaching service with responsibilities closely mirroring those of an intern. Students will have primary responsibility for patient care and may be required to take night calls. These are distinct from core sub-internships and do not meet core sub-internship requirements for the D&I phase. 
    • Consult: The student will be under the direct supervision of house staff and attendings and will provide consultation to other in-hospital services. Students present cases and are responsible for follow-up of their patients. 
    • Preceptorship The student will work directly with one faculty member during the course of the elective, performing or observing all the duties of that faculty member. The setting may be inpatient, outpatient, or a combination of both.  
    • Other (Clinical) Elective: The student will function as part of a team but with less responsibility for patient care than in a sub-internship. The setting may be inpatient or outpatient. 
  • Non-Clinical: 
    • Research Research electives are self-arranged opportunities for dedicated study on a topic agreed upon with a research supervisor. They are not available to visiting students except where listed in the elective catalog. 
    • Other (Non-clinical) elective The student will engage primarily in non-clinical, didactic-focused educational experiences in the discipline as part of the elective. The elective does not engage students in hands-on patient care experience and is not patient facing. 
  • Extramural (away) electives: 
    • Clinical: clinical electives under the auspices of another medical school, institution, or organization. 
    • Nonclinical: non-clinical electives under the auspices of another medical school, institution, or organization that does not engage students in direct patient care.  
    • Global health electives: electives sponsored through the Global Health Exchange Program, other Columbia University Sponsored Global Health Programs, or student-arranged global health electives with non-university affiliated global institutions. 
  • Students in the MD program must complete 20 weeks of electives during Differentiation and Integration (D&I) Phase. Of this, at least 12 weeks must be clinical electives 
  • Students in the Columbia-Bassett MD program must complete 16 weeks of electives during the D&I Phase. Of this, at least 12 weeks must be clinical electives Students in MD/PhD, PhD to MD, OMFS tracks schedule their D&I electives in partnership with Curricular Affairs and Student Affairs 
  • Students in all tracks must successfully complete a final-semester clinical elective at CUIMC or affiliate site. A list of electives which meet this requirement is posted on OASIS.  
  • A maximum of 12 weeks of electives may be taken at an extramural site. Permission is required from the associate dean for student career development if a student wishes to take more than 12 weeks of electives at a away sites.  
  • All intramural and extramural electives must be at least two weeks in length.  
  • VP&S students are not allowed to drop a home elective for an extramural elective within four weeks of the elective start date.  
  • Scheduling changes to all electives (both electives at home sites and visiting electives) are restricted within four weeks of a rotation start date. Students who wish to add or drop an elective within four weeks of the start date must submit a written request to the associate dean for student career development.  Such requests will only be considered based on the following criteria:  
    • Personal emergency of the student  
    • Faculty not available to provide the course as described  
    • Urgent academic issue  
    • A change in career plans  

Requests made after the start of the rotation will only be considered under extreme circumstances, and if related to the student's well-being. Students risk forfeiting a month of elective credit if the request to add/drop is not made prior to the rotation start date.  

  • All electives are graded and evaluated through OASIS. VP&S students are required to complete a course evaluation before a student performance evaluation appears on their schedule. All electives will be graded as Honors/High Pass/Pass/Low Pass/Fail, except for research electives, extramural electives and global health electives, which are all graded as Pass/Fail. 

Procedures

  • Students register for electives at CUIMC and affiliate sites through OASIS. 
  • Departmental liaisons review their departments’ list of available electives periodically. Recommendations to add new electives or discontinue electives are proposed to the Elective subcommittee of the MCY/D&I subcommittee and must be approved by CEPC.  
  • Student proposals for self-designed electives, including preceptorships, must be submitted to Curricular Affairs. The Senior Associate Dean for Curricular Affairs must approve preceptorship elective proposals. The Associate Dean for Research must approve self-designed student research electives. 
  • Medicine Sub-Internships (March through September)  Due to the high volume of need for sub-internships prior to residency applications March through September), VP&S students are permitted one medicine sub-internship from March through September. This restriction does not apply to sub-internships in other specialties unless otherwise communicated to the class. Example: Students may take a medicine sub-internship and a surgical sub-internship from March through September.