Standard 10: Medical Student Selection, Assignment, and Progress
A medical school establishes and publishes admission requirements for potential applicants to the medical education program and uses effective policies and procedures for medical student selection, enrollment, and assignment.
10.1 Premedical Education/Required Coursework
Through its requirements for admission, a medical school encourages potential applicants to the medical education program to acquire a broad undergraduate education that includes the study of the humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences, and confines its specific premedical course requirements to those deemed essential preparation for successful completion of its medical curriculum.
10.2 Final Authority of Admission Committee
The final responsibility for accepting students to a medical school rests with a formally constituted admission committee. The authority and composition of the committee and the rules for its operation, including voting privileges and the definition of a quorum, are specified in bylaws or other medical school policies. Faculty members constitute the majority of voting members at all meetings. The selection of individual medical students for admission is not influenced by any political or financial factors.
10.3 Policies Regarding Student Selection/Progress and Their Dissemination
The faculty of a medical school establish criteria for student selection and develop and implement effective policies and procedures regarding, and make decisions about, medical student application, selection, admission, assessment, promotion, graduation, and any disciplinary action. The medical school makes available to all interested parties its criteria, standards, policies, and procedures regarding these matters.
10.4 Characteristics of Accepted Applicants
A medical school selects applicants for admission who possess the intelligence, integrity, and personal and emotional characteristics necessary for them to become competent physicians.
10.5 Technical Standards
A medical school develops and publishes technical standards for the admission, retention, and graduation of applicants or medical students in accordance with legal requirements.
10.6 Content of Informational Materials
A medical school’s academic bulletin and other informational, advertising, and recruitment materials present a balanced and accurate representation of the mission and objectives of the medical education program, state the academic and other (e.g., immunization) requirements for the MD degree and all associated joint degree programs, provide the most recent academic calendar for each curricular option, and describe all required courses and clerkships offered by the medical education program.
10.7 Transfer Students
A medical school ensures that any student accepted for transfer or admission with advanced standing demonstrates academic achievements, completion of relevant prior coursework, and other relevant characteristics comparable to those of the medical students in the class that he or she would join. Transfer students who do not complete all of their required curriculum from medical schools chartered and located in the United States cannot be said to have graduated from an LCME-accredited medical education program. A medical school accepts a transfer medical student into the final year of a medical education program only in rare and extraordinary personal or educational circumstances.
10.8 Visiting Students
A medical school does all of the following:
- Verifies the credentials of each visiting medical student
- Ensures that each visiting medical student demonstrates qualifications comparable to those of the medical students the visiting student would join in educational experiences
- Maintains a complete roster of visiting medical students
- Approves each visiting medical student’s assignments
- Provides a performance assessment for each visiting medical student
- Establishes health-related protocols for such visiting medical students
- Identifies the administrative office that fulfills each of these responsibilities
10.9 Student Assignment
A medical school assumes ultimate responsibility for the selection and assignment of medical students to each location and/or parallel curriculum (i.e., track) and identifies the administrative office that fulfills this responsibility. A process exists whereby a medical student with an appropriate rationale can request an alternative assignment when circumstances allow for it.
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