Who are the academic advisors?

When does the coordinator interact with academic advisors?

• Course coordinators can reach out to academic advisors if they have any concerns about a student, as it's their job to follow up individually with students and monitor them across courses. If course coordinators cannot get ahold of a student, academic advisors can try to get in touch with the student or their emergency contacts.

  • Due to FERPA, academic advisors often can't share the specific details of a student situation, hence why emails from Academic Advisors might be somewhat vague

When do students meet with their academic advisor?

• Academic advisors have a caseload of about 320 students (about 180 MS3 and MS4 students); students meeting with their academic advisor is optional, not required

  • Students are required to connect with their academic advisor about moving/dropping required courses and all courses after the add/drop deadline

• Students are referred to their academic advisor as a first contact if they don't know who to go to for something

What should coordinators know about the progression of medical students?

• Students are expected to complete Step 1 by the end of August at the start of 3rd year (often before starting clinical rotations). If a student is not ready, they may be advised to drop a course to have additional time to study and take the exam, as students trying to study and complete the exam while in a rotation usually does not work well. A student not passing on the first attempt ensures they may not be able to match into certain specialties. In all cases where a course is dropped so a student can have more study time, this has been in consultation with an academic advisor and the Office of Learner Development to ensure the student has a reasonable plan to be successful in completing the exam.

• If students do not complete Step 1 by spring semester, they are halted in moving forward with coursework. Students often try to get a score back right before a course starts so they can maximize the amount of study time they take. Scores only release on Wednesday mornings, so we might not know until a Wednesday before a course starts in spring semester if a student is not able to start a course. Once a student takes Step 1, it takes about 3 weeks (3 Wednesdays) before they get their score.

  • • If students cannot continue in coursework due to not completing Step 1, they do not have access to University Financial Aid or Health Insurance, so this is a huge stresser to students.

• Students apply to residency in their 4th year at the end of September, so in summer after 3rd year, students may be finalizing which specialty they want to apply to which sometimes might mean they want to change courses to be prepared for the specialty they are applying to. Also, for current cohorts of students going forward (because Step 1 is Pass/Fail), students would be expected to have a Step 2 CK score by the time they apply. This will be challenging for students who might need more time for Step 2 CK in future summer semesters, as this may affect their ability to complete expected coursework if they're not ready for Step 2. Previously, students could rely on Step 1 as a standardized numerical assessment that was comparable across medical schools, so they could take Step 2 CK later in the year. 

• Students typically do interviews between October - January, but the majority are often in November/December. It's not uncommon for students to have 10+ interviews to increase their chances of Matching, hence it can be stressful for them to navigate coursework absences and scheduled interviews.

Who are the specialty mentors students are connected with in my department, and how can I update that list?

• You can view the specialty mentors by department here: specialty mentors

• If corrections to the specialty mentors list are needed, please email resapp@umn.edu.