Academic Advising Four Year Guide & Timeline
UTRGV School of Medicine Academic Advising Four Year Guide & Timeline
Year 1
- Orientation to Academic Advising
- Connect with your advisor or mentor
- Know your advisee/mentee responsibilities
- Understand the role of your academic advisor
- Attend scheduled meetings with your academic advisor and learning specialist
- Attend all academic skills presentations
- Get help early if you perceive a need
- Begin to participate in tutoring, faculty help sessions, open lab hours, clinical skills sessions and study groups
- Attend cim presentations and activities
- Begin taking self-assessments to maximize your study skills and reading comprehension
- Read all information regarding USMLE Step 1 Examination
- Consider participating in a research or preceptorship if interested
Year 2
- Continue to connect with your academic advisor
- Begin to connect with a career mentor
- Continue to participate in tutoring, faculty help sessions, open lab hours, clinical skills sessions and study groups
- Get help and remediation as needed
- Complete self-assessments in CIM
- Review your assessment results with your advisor and career mentor
- Begin gathering basic information about specialties of interest
- Attend specialty interest groups and panels at your school
- Attend clerkship related presentations
- Participate in site selections
- Conduct informational interviews or participate in preceptorships
- Compare your assessment results to the information you’ve gathered about specialties
- Plan your third-year schedule
- Prepare for the USMLE Step 1 using high yield resources
- Take the USMLE Step 1
Year 3
- Connect with your clerkship director
- Continue to participate in group discussions
- Periodically, connect with your academic advisor as needed
- Get help and remediation as needed
- Read all about professionalism
- Begin clinical rotations; record your reflections on the Clinical Rotation Evaluation
- Review competitiveness data to assess your qualifications
- Join appropriate specialty associations and organizations
- Meet with your advisor and clerkship director to discuss your top specialty preferences
- Complete the Specialty Indecision Scale if you're having difficulty making a specialty decision
- Monitor when ERAS opens for applicants
- Register with ERAS and begin preparing residency application materials
- Request letters of recommendation from faculty in your chosen specialty
Year 4
- Periodically, connect with your academic advisor as needed
- Get help and remediation as needed
- Look into various Residency training programs. You can do this through the AMA’s FREIDA Online
- Determine your preferences using the Residency Preference Exercise
- Register with the National Resident Matching Program® for the Main Residency Match
- Register for early Match programs, if applicable
- Begin applying to programs and transmitting applications through ERAS
- Take USMLE Step 2
- Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE) released
- Interview with residency programs
- Rate programs using the Residency Preference Exercise
- Early Match deadline
- Rank your selections for the NRMP Main Residency Match
- Match D