March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December | January | February | March

MARCH :

Information regarding senior scheduling will be distributed to rising seniors (current T3s) in late February or early March. Course descriptions of all core and selective clerkships offered by Tulane School of Medicine can be found on the Office of Student Affairs web site www.som.tulane.edu/studentaffairs/index.htm. Information regarding specific times for the administration of TOSCE—the Tulane Objective Structures Clinical Examination, required of ALL seniors, will be provided. It is tentatively scheduled at the end of Block 1 and beginning of Block 2.

Scheduling for core clerkships will be carried out the last week of March.

Once the core schedule is reasonably firm, the student should begin to apply for extramurals (many students have already started that process, and that is quite all right. Students will also, if interested, confirm extramural senior selectives at schools that have programs in which the student might be interested. This process of arranging for extramural selectives is ongoing through the summer and fall. Catalogs from some United States medical schools and information on international and third world country electives can be found in the Office of Student Affairs. Other medical schools, like Tulane, have their catalogs on the web. A particularly useful source entitled "Extramural Electives Compendium" can be found on the web at www.aamc.org/students/medstudents.

APRIL:

Scheduling for senior selective clerkships and TOSCE will be carried out the first week of April.

MAY:

Beginning about the end of May, students should start to make appointments for Medical Student Performance Evaluaions (MSPE). Early match applicants, military applicants, and those students planning away rotations in July and August may schedule their MSPE interviews as early as April. In years past, there was urgency about this because of early deadlines for the receipt of the Dean's Letters. Since the Council of Deans and the various national organizations of program directors have agreed that Dean's Letters should not be mailed before November 1, there is no longer an urgency. Still, it would be best if students began Dean’s interviews during May so that there is a smooth flow of interviews, preventing a crush in the fall of the year. The Dean of Students usually meets first with the students in the military, those students going in the "early match" specialties, and with those students who would be out-of-town in the fall.

Students should bring their Curriculum Vitae to the interview with the Dean. A personal statement is also helpful. Students should plan to meet with the Dean for an hour. Examples of Personal Statements and C.V.'s of past students are included on this site and are available in the medical school library.

At the conclusion of the Dean’s interview, the student should complete a "Chit" (a form available in the Office of Student Affairs) in order to activate the dictation of the Dean’s letter.

JUNE:

In early June, students can access the Internet for the early matches. The web site can be found at www.sfmatch.org. Students entering an early match will have letters of recommendation sent directly from those writing the letters to specific addresses given for the programs. Dean’s letters and transcripts for early match applicants are mailed Nov. 1 to the San Francisco Match. Students will have stickers sent to them when they apply for early match. These stickers, which have the address of the early match with the student’s name and an assigned number, are to be given to the Office of Student Affairs for the November mailings.

Meetings for Dean's Letters will continue all through this month.

JULY:

Students will be able to access ERAS at www.myeras.aamc.org. They will be able to begin completing the ERAS application and can print out coversheets that are used in requesting letters of recommendation. Students are responsible for having the personal letters of recommendation sent to the Office of Student Affairs. If past years are any indication, there may be some programs (especially otolaryngology, ophthalmology, and Psychiatry) that will interview students on the basis of the application and letters of recommendation alone (although they will not make any final decisions about candidates to accept until they have received the Dean's Letter in November); therefore, it is important to submit applications and letters as soon as possible.

Appointments for Dean's Letters will continue.

This is the first month for extramural selective clerkships. Students taking extramural clerkships in both July and August should make plans to return to New Orleans for TOSCE, though you will be given preference for the date most convenient.

AUGUST:

The agreement forms for the National Resident Matching Program will be available at www.nrmp.aamc.org. All students (including those on military scholarship) should sign up for the NRMP. On August 15th, the ERAS Post Office opens, and the Office of Student Affairs begins scanning letters of recommendation as soon as students submit their ERAS applications. The Office of Student Affairs will know when a student submits the application; however, the application cannot be viewed in Student Affairs. The number of letters of recommendation requested and the person sending the letter will show on the screen for Student Affairs. As the letters are scanned into the system, the staff in Student Affairs will be able to keep track of which letters are still missing. A photograph is optional; however, if you want to submit a photo, please get that in as soon as possible so that staff can scan it into ERAS.

Meetings for Dean's Letters will continue all through this month, and students should be working hard getting applications completed and letters of recommendation sent to the Office of Student Affairs.

Extramural selectives will also be continuing this month.

SEPTEMBER:

The application process is continuing. Those people in an "early match" should have completed the application process. The people in the NRMP should be winding down in September and October. Extramurals continue.

OCTOBER:

The ERAS application process should be nearly finished. All applications should be completed, and all letters of recommendation should have been submitted to the Office of Student Affairs by the 15th of the month. All Dean's Letter interviews should have been completed by the first week in the month.

Extramural selectives continue.

NOVEMBER:

On November 1st the Dean's Letters will be mailed for early match applicants. The ERAS applicants will already have their Dean’s letters scanned into the ERAS Post Office, and programs will be able to download them on Nov. 1. At this point, all files will be completed and reviewed by the program directors and their committees; so interviewing will begin in earnest. The prime months for interviewing will be November, December, January, and the first two weeks in February for programs in NRMP, and November, December, and early January for "early matches."

DECEMBER:

This will be a heavy interview month, and many students will be doing extramural selectives.

JANUARY:

In January the "early matches" will be executed, and the results announced.

Students will also be receiving their NRMP Number and the password from the Office of Student Affairs. The NRMP website opens for rank order entry on January 15th. Each student enters his/her rank on the Internet using his/her NRMP number and password at www.nrmp.org. Deadline for rank order is generally around February 21st.

This is a heavy month for interviews.

February 1 is the deadline for having your applications completed at the residency program of your first year appointment. This is a theoretical date more than a practical date because if students wait this long, it really gives no time to interview. Students should get their applications in early.

FEBRUARY:

Deadline for entering rank order is around February 21st each year.

MARCH:

In March, starting in the middle of the month, 1) applicants find out if they are matched and unmatched via the web or via the NRMP Voice Response System (with NRMP code and password). 2) Results will be available to Institutional Officials/Programs Directors via Web. 3) Schools print match notification letters for Match Day Ceremonies via the Internet. 4) Rosters of Match results, e.g., where applicants matched, rosters of applicants/programs matched, available via the Web to Student Affairs Officers and Institutional Officials/Program Directors, and 5) School Match Day Ceremonies are held.

MARCH through APRIL:

Hospitals will be sending letters of appointment to the candidates who matched to them. Students should sign and return the letters of appointment.

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APPLICATIONS FOR EXTRAMURAL APPROVAL

VERY IMPORTANT - PLEASE NOTE:

Student should read carefully the instructions and the information that will be provided during the first week in March of each year, especially as it pertains to extramural selectives. For extramurals, students must have a course description and the approval of the chairman here at Tulane BEFORE leaving for an extramural selective; otherwise the student may not get credit for it. That will create a lot of problems. Application for Approval of Extramural Clerkship forms are available in the Office of Student Affairs.