Medical Elective Grants
Medical electives are essential for medical students because they allow students to enrich their learning experience. This precious experience enables medical students to differentiate early during their medical training.
This initiative helps uncover the students’ strong skills, determine their career path, and disclose how they choose their electives.
These reasons make medical elective grants among the most sought-after grants by medical students across the United States.
If you look forward to applying for an elective medical grant, this article is for you.
Read on below to learn the top medical elective grants currently provided 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 elective medical 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 is available to medical or public health students at participating VSLO member institutions.
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 vary between institutions.
After completing the application, students submit it directly through the VSLO application service, which forwards it to the host institution for consideration.
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 medical students incredibly vast opportunities to take electives there.
The organization places eligible students with host institutes to help improve the student’s skills and gain relevant experience.
Students accepted into the Mayo Clinic’s Visiting Medical Student Elective program can apply for clerkships in various fields at Mayo Clinic campuses in Arizona, Florida, and Minnesota.
Mayo Clinic receives over 1,400 elective applications yearly 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, visit the Mayo Clinic’s Medical Student Clerkship webpage for application 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 encourages fourth-year medical students, especially those from groups underrepresented in the medical field, to apply for the UCSF Emergency Medicine rotation (EM 140.01). Under this initiative, successful applicants are awarded up to $2,000.
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 clinical rotation under the VESP lasts four weeks and is offered to both US and international visiting medical students, subject to availability.
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
The VESP application is reviewed after it is submitted, and eligible candidates may be awarded the grant based on the program’s selection criteria.
4 – George Washington University’s International Clinical Electives Program Scholarship
George Washington University offers third- and fourth-year medical students the International Clinical Electives Program Scholarship (ICEPS).
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 $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 in boosting your medical career.
Suppose you are an aspiring fourth-year medical student who wishes to broaden your medical skills and knowledge. In that case, it is highly recommended that you apply for a medical elective grant from any of the sources mentioned above.
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