Ground Rules

Calendar

The fourth-year schedule consists of the 11 calendar months beginning July 1, 2008.

You may take up to three months away from UT-Houston. For permission to do more than three months away, submit a request in writing with justification to Student Affairs.

Most residency interviewing takes place in November, December, and January. Check with your specialty advisor about the wisdom of taking a month off to interview. If you plan to interview widely, it may be a good idea. Students wishing to be excused one or more days must obtain clearance from the course director in advance and should be prepared to make up time and work missed. You will need to understand very clearly the director’s expectations of you.

Requirements

* ACLS will be offered at various times and it is your responsibility to enroll in one of the offered
   sections. Dates and course codes will be posted on the schoo's MSIV page, ASAP.
* Medical Jurisprudence is administered through the Required Transition to Residency course.
** # of vacation months will be reduced by any required third year remediation.

Discipline Limitations

You are limited to three electives in any one discipline. Subinternship electives are considered part of the appropriate parent discipline. A cardiology course under Family Medicine, for example, counts as an Internal Medicine elective. Required courses are NOT considered a part of the Discipline Limitation rule. You may not take the same elective twice.

Advice and Counsel

In planning your schedule you are urged to seek advice from the designated faculty advisors by specialty. (List is also available on the Current Students page of Medical School website under Career Counseling). If you are undecided about a specialty, Dr. McNeese, Dr. Lahoti, Dr. Gleason and Dr. Butler are available to talk to you and can sign your form. Your preference form must be signed by a faculty advisor for the specialty area--or one of the specialty areas--you indicate on your form. Forms will not be processed without this signature and will be returned to you.

Approval from Course Director

In addition to having a faculty advisor sign off on your form, some electives require course director’s approval (see example below) and you must have the faculty member offering that course sign next to the course title on the preference form. If you don’t get the signature, that course selection won’t be processed. A signature from the course director is not a guarantee that you will be enrolled in the course. The only guarantee that you will be enrolled in the course is to list it in Part A on your form.

Click here for a list of electives that require faculty approval.

Deadlines

Timely submission of the form is your responsibility. Course assignments will be made by computer according to the guidelines described in Parts A, B and C and are NOT FIRST-COME, FIRST-SERVED!

After the open drop/add period, changes can still be made for most electives prior to 30 days before the beginning of an elective. Any changes needed with less than 30 days notice must be done in consultation first with the dropped and then the added departments. Permission to drop must always be obtained before permission to add is sought.

Draft Your Schedule

A good way to plan your schedule is to use the worksheet, list the electives you want to take, and play with the month arrangements.

For practical help in filling out the course form, talk to Steve Jones (500-5158) in the Office of Student Affairs.

We suggest you fill out your form in pencil -- it’s easier to revise!