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

Policy

1. Student assignments for clerkship block order and locations are determined by a 3-phase MCY lottery, which is run by the Office of Curricular Affairs through OASIS (Online Access to Student Information & Scheduling).

2. All MCY clerkships will be held at NYP and NYP-affiliate sites, as specified under each clerkship description.  Overnight clerkship sites are sites that, due to their distance from VP&S, require students to stay in overnight accommodations. Lodging is provided to students at these sites. Students will be assigned anywhere from 1 to a maximum of 3 overnight clerkship sites during MCY year, except those who receive exemptions through the Office of Student Affairs for personal circumstances.

3. Extenuating circumstances may require students to complete their clerkships in a specific sequence or geographic area, including no overnight sites. Examples of extenuating circumstances include: 

Personal health or disability

Personal health or special needs of a dependent, significant other, or family member requiring student as primary caregiver (excluding pets)

Significant personal or family event (ex: wedding) requiring specific vacation dates

Students must submit requests for specific clerkship arrangements by submitting a written request to the Associate Dean for Student Affairs, Support and Services before the start of MCY lottery Phase 1. Curricular Affairs will not honor clerkship scheduling requests for these circumstances unless prior approval has been obtained.

4. Once schedules are finalized prior to the start of the Major Clinical Year, students are not permitted to request a site reassignment apart from one-for-one swaps where students can request a direct swap of a clerkship site assignment with another medical student. To facilitate a one-for-one swap request, medical students must provide written notice to the clerkship director and Curricular Affairs by emailing: psmcy@cumc.columbia.edu no later than six weeks prior to the start of the rotation. The request must include the names of both students interested in swapping their site assignments, their contact information, and their rationale for switching. The decision to approve or deny swap requests is made by the Senior Associate Dean for Curricular Affairs in concert with clerkship directors based on the potential impact the change may have.

5. On occasion, the school may have to reassign student clerkship locations during the Major Clinical Year due to sudden changes in teaching capacity at clerkship sites or extenuating student personal circumstances. Such changes, though rare, are made with the final approval of the Senior Associate Dean for Curricular Affairs.

6. Students enrolled in the Bassett Longitudinal Program complete MCY year at Bassett Hospital through a longitudinal integrated clerkship model, and they do not participate in the MCY clerkship lottery. Enrollment in the Bassett Longitudinal track occurs before medical school matriculation through a separate application process. Students may not switch out of the Bassett Longitudinal program after matriculation except under rare extenuating circumstances. Students who wish to switch out of the Bassett Longitudinal track after matriculation must contact the director of the Bassett program and Senior Associate Dean for Curricular Affairs. Such changes require the final approval of the Senior Associate Dean for Curricular Affairs.

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 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.