College of Medicine students are advised to seek the expertise and guidance of their faculty advisor and other faculty members in preparing their fourth year curriculum. The student's final plan for a fourth year curriculum will be submitted by the student, in consultation with the student's faculty advisor, to the Associate Dean for Student Affairs for review and final approval. Class meetings are arranged by the Office of Student Affairs to distribute the paperwork and review procedures for scheduling fourth year curriculum.

• Schedule (Reference: Academic Calendar)
  
  • January 2010
    Elective book distributed to all students and available online
    http://medicine.tamhsc.edu/elective/courses/index.html
  • April 2010
    All requests must be submitted
  • June 2010
    End of Third Year
  • June 2010
    Module I of Fourth Year
• Each student will be required to satisfactorily complete:
  • 4-week Acting Internship (AI) rotation in one of the following disciplines - Family Practice, General Internal Medicine, General Pediatrics, Med/Peds, or General Surgery. The AI does not necessarily need to be completed on-campus.
  • 4-week Emergency Medicine rotation
  • 4-week ICU rotation
  • 2-week Alcohol & Drug Dependency Treatment rotation
  • 2-week Professionalism IV course
  • Twenty-four (24) weeks of electives (50% of the 24 weeks of electives must be chosen from the Recommended Electives List for your stated career choice. Variance from this requirement needs approval of the Phase IV Curriculum Subcommittee.)
• Students who plan student initiated electives should initiate planning as soon as possible. These requests must be submitted on the Student Initiated Elective Form in the outlined format and have a signature of approval by the Student Initiated Elective Administrator of the department sponsoring the elective. A signature is not required if the elective is offered in a fourth year elective curriculum of another LCME accredited medical school. All Student Initiated Electives (which include all off‑campus electives) must be approved by the Office of Student Affairs prior to beginning the elective. Students who fail to complete all of the following will not receive credit for the elective:
  • Submit a complete and signed Student Initiated Elective Form.
  • Leave a forwarding address and phone number.
  • Submit a letter of confirmation of the elective from the host school or institution.

• Proposed fourth year schedules must be submitted on forms available from the Student Affairs Office. Final computer generated schedules will be sent to each student. If a successful match is not obtained by the initial computer scheduling, the student will be asked to meet with the Student Affairs Office staff to work out a schedule.
• Students who request any schedule changes must complete the appropriate "Rotation Change Request”. These forms are available in the Student Affairs Office, Learning Resource Center (LRC) and also on the Internet. Perception of an Elective's value are not valid reasons for altering schedules. The student is responsible for assuring that any proposed changes are feasible and acceptable to the departments concerned. Signatures indicating approval of elective coordinators for moved or deleted electives must be acquired. No schedule changes will be allowed after December 15 of Year IV. The completed Rotation Change Request Form is subject to final approval by the Associate Dean for Student Affairs. Incomplete forms will not be processed by the Office of Student Affairs.
• Student performance on all electives will be graded on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.
• Students will be asked to evaluate each elective upon completion using the Fourth Year Elective Evaluation Form. The completed evaluation form is due in the Office of Student Affairs within two (2) weeks of completing the elective. Completion of an evaluation form is necessary to receive academic credit for that elective.
• No more than 20 weeks may be spent off campus. Schedules at variance with this policy must be approved by the Phase IV Curriculum Subcommittee. When taking any elective off-campus, the student must notify the Office of the Associate Dean for Student Affairs of an address and phone number where the student and a spouse or parent may be contacted so that important information can be conveyed.

Note: It is the student's responsibility to have approval through the above described process before beginning any elective. Students may not make schedule changes after December 15 of year IV for other than compelling reasons and such changes must be approved in advance by the associate dean for student affairs and admissions. Failure to adhere to this policy may result in no academic credit being given for unapproved electives.