Medical Elective Grants
Medical electives are essential for medical students because they allow students to enrich their learning experience. This is an incredibly valuable experience that enables medical students to differentiate early during their medical training.
This initiative helps to uncover the student’s strong skills, determine the career path for them as well as disclose how students choose their electives.
These reasons make the medical elective grants among the most sought-after grants by medical students across the United States.
If you are looking forward to applying for a medical elective grant, this article is for you.
Read on below to know the top medical elective grants being provided currently for US medical students, the eligibility criteria for medical elective grants, and the application process for each.
Best Sources of Medical Elective Grants in the US
Here are our selected sources for medical elective grants in the US for 2021:
Best Sources of Medical Elective Grants in the US
1 – AAMC Visiting Student Learning Opportunities (VSLO)
The Visiting Student Learning Opportunity (VSLO) by the Association of American Medical Colleges helps medical and public health students with short-term learning opportunities at locations away from their institutions.
This program covers all students pursuing medical or public health courses from accredited universities/medical schools from all over the US and the world.
This grant allows students to become observers, participate in summer research programs, find clinical opportunities, choose rotations to away institutions, perform clinical rotations and find other relevant visiting opportunities.
The eligibility criteria for medical electives under the VSLO program can vary between institutions.
Once you complete the application, it needs to be submitted to your home institute for verification. Once the application proposal is verified it is sent to the host institution for approval.
2 – Mayo Clinic College of Medical and Science Visiting Medical Student Electives
The Mayo Clinic is undoubtedly the country’s most prominent medical and healthcare organization. It offers incredibly vast opportunities to medical students to receive electives.
The organization places eligible students with host institutes to help improve the student’s skills and gain relevant experience.
For instance, students selected under the Visiting Medical Student Elective program offered by the Mayo Clinic can choose to select clerkships in numerous fields and apply for electives at prestigious medical centers across Arizona, Florida and Minnesota.
Mayo Clinic receives over 1,400 elective applications each year for around 600 elective positions. The eligibility criteria involve evaluating the applicant’s medical school transcript grades, USMLE Step 1 score, competitiveness and space availability.
To apply for the Mayo Clinic’s Visiting Medical Student Clerkship program, you will need to visit the portal at the AAMC-Visiting Student Learning Opportunities webpage for complete information and guidelines.
3 – UCSF Visiting Elective Scholarship Program
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Department of Emergency Medicine offers the Visiting Elective Student Program (VESP) for medical student rotations.
This program aims to encourage fourth-year medical students, especially those who are under-represented in the medical field, to apply for the UCSF Emergency Medicine rotation (EM 140.01). Successful applicants are awarded as much as US$ 1,500 under this initiative.
The aims of this medical elective grant include:
- Helping under-represented fourth-year medical students to an academic-grade medicine training program
- Promoting student interest in applying to an emergency medicine residency program
The duration of the clinical rotation under the VESP is four weeks and is offered according to availability, to US visiting medical students.
The eligibility criteria for receiving the VESP medical elective grant require the applicant to:
- Be a fourth-year US visiting medical student whose ethnic or racial identities are not represented sufficiently in medicine, including students who identify as LGBTQ, students with disabilities, students from disadvantaged family backgrounds and students who are first-generation to attend college
- Be good in academics at an accredited US medical school
- Meet the requirements for the UCSF’s School of Medicine’s clinical electives criteria
Once you fill the VESP form and submit it, the application is evaluated and the deserving candidates are allowed to receive medical elective grants.
4 – George Washington University’s International Clinical Electives Program Scholarship
The International Clinical Electives Program Scholarship (ICEPS) is offered by George Washington University to third and fourth-year medical students.
This is an incredible opportunity for medical students to enhance their medical education, diversify their experience and knowledge of public health and strengthen their commitment to providing top-quality medical services to all patients.
Under this program, successful applicants are awarded as much as US$ 2,500 to support international clinical and non-clinical elective opportunities through George Washington University or a credible third-party institute.
The eligibility criteria for the ICEPS require the applicant to be:
- Third or fourth-year medical students with good academic standing
- Preferably enrolled in the Scholarly Concentration program
To learn more details about the International Clinical Electives Program Scholarship, you can visit the official website of George Washington University.
Conclusion
Medical elective grants are incredibly helpful to boost your medical career.
If you are an aspiring, fourth-year medical student who wishes to broaden your medical skills and knowledge, it is highly recommended to apply for a medical elective grant from any of the above-mentioned sources.
Reference links
https://students-residents.aamc.org/
https://college.mayo.edu/academics/
https://emergency.ucsf.edu/visiting-elective-scholarship-program
https://smhs.gwu.edu/imp/programs/
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