Stanford MD Program students must have successfully completed all pre-clinical requirements prior to beginning clerkships. Review the MD Program clerkship requirements detailed on the MD Program Clerkship Requirements webpage. Also refer to the MD Program Handbook for required clerkship curriculum.
The Draw is the lottery scheduling system that the School of Medicine Registrar’s Office uses to schedule each MD program student’s nine core clerkships. The Draw is run once a year. See the Clerkship Scheduling website for more information.
The Clerkship Fishbowl System (CFS) is the system used to administer clerkship schedules. MD program students can log on to the Fishbowl to view their clerkship schedule.
If the period of the core clerkship you want to move to is available, an email may be sent to Caroline Cheang, Associate Director of Clerkship Administration, Registrar’s Office, requesting the existing core clerkship be moved to another available period.
An email requesting to be put on core clerkship waiting lists may be sent to Caroline Cheang, Associate Director of Clerkship Administration, Registrar’s Office.
Students need to get approval from the clerkship directors to drop any clerkships at the last minute or during the 4-week no-drop period. Approval emails need to be forwarded to Caroline Cheang, Associate Director of Clerkship Administration, Registrar’s Office, who will manually drop the clerkship from the student’s Fishbowl schedule.
The Shuffle is the lottery scheduling system which runs every Monday. MD students can schedule their non-core clerkships, accept notified clerkships, drop waiting lists or non-core clerkships, and put themselves on waiting lists for non-core clerkships that are currently not available. See the Clerkship Scheduling website for more information.
All clerkships that require prior approval from clerkship directors cannot be scheduled through the weekly shuffle. Approval emails need to be forwarded to Caroline Cheang, Associate Director of Clerkship Administration, Registrar’s Office. She will manually add approved clerkships onto the students’ Fishbowl schedules.
The weekly shuffles can only be used to move non-core clerkships. All core clerkship movements need to be manually done by Caroline Cheang, Associate Director of Clerkship Administration, Registrar’s Office.
All clerkships are closed 4 weeks prior to their start date. Once the clerkships are closed, they are locked in the system and cannot be dropped. Weekly shuffles will not change any locked clerkships.
Final evaluations for each clerkship scheduled on the student’s Fishbowl schedule will be created on MedHub each period. Credits will be given once the final evaluations are submitted.
See Continuity of Care clerkships. Students register for the Continuity of Care clerkship on Axess during the quarter the clerkship is ending, and should check with the clerkship coordinator for instructions. An evaluation will be created for the students to receive credits for the clerkship.
The VSLO™ (Visiting Student Learning Opportunities™) program enables MD students to pursue short-term learning opportunities (away rotations/clerkships) outside of their home institution. See VLSO Student Essentials for more information. VSAS is the Visiting Student Application Service which allows students to apply for and track applications for away clerkships at participating institutions.
Students request authorization to apply for away rotations in VSAS by first sending an email to Caroline Cheang, Associate Director of Clerkship Administration, Registrar’s Office, who will grant access. When an application is completed, a notification email will be sent to Caroline who will then verify the student on VSAS and release their applications to the host schools. Electronic transcripts requested by students and letters of recommendation prepared by faculty will be uploaded to VSAS by Caroline.
Visit the away institution’s website and carefully review their instructions for applying. If the away institution’s process includes form completion by authorized School of Medicine staff and/or a letter of good standing, use the School of Medicine Registrar’s Office Document Request Form to submit a request.
Students can access their original background check (conducted during the MD admissions process) by going to the Certiphi Consumer Care website at https://consumercare.certiphi.com/. Some institutions simply want verification that a background check was conducted. If you're not applying for the away rotation via VSLO, use the SoM Registrar's Office Document Request Form to request a Letter of Good Standing for an away rotation. Ask to have confirmation included that a background check was completed.
Fill out the appropriate Faculty Authorization Form found on the Clerkship Scheduling website. Attach a copy of the acceptance notification from the away institution and give both to Dr. Neil Gesundheit for approval signature. The signed forms will be given to Caroline Cheang who will register the away rotations on your Fishbowl schedule. The away clerkship in Axess will then be validated for you to register. Students receive credits once the final evaluations from the away institution are submitted in MedHub.
For each upcoming quarter, visiting student applications are accepted during a one-month period: April for Summer, July for Autumn, October for Winter, and January for Spring quarter. Students need to submit their application, non-refundable application fee of $200, and all supporting documents listed on our Visiting Clerkships website before the deadline. Students interested in clerkships that require pre-approval must obtain their pre-approval before applying.
Visiting students are scheduled in clerkships quarterly: Summer (P1, P2 and P3) during the first 2 weeks in May, Autumn (P4, P5, P6) during the first 2 weeks in August, Winter (P7, P8 and P9) during the first 2 weeks in November, and Spring (P10, P11 and P12) during the first 2 weeks in February.
Stanford students only have priority over visiting students to take clerkships up until the time when visiting students are scheduled. Once a visiting student is scheduled, we cannot rescind a clerkship since the visiting student likely has made arrangements to travel and participate in the scheduled clerkship.
