Registration & Records

The UW SOM Registration and Records team is here to help you schedule your courses and keep you on track to meet your degree requirements.

Please see below for information on specific topics.

Have questions? Ask us! somreg@uw.edu

Coming soon!

PREFERENCING FOR PATIENT CARE COURSES OFFERED SPRING 2024 – WINTER 2025 IS CLOSED. 

Check the scheduling calendar for updates on schedule release and swap/trade dates.

PREFERENCE CLOSE DATE EXTENDED TO FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2023, 4 PM PACIFIC

CANCELLED: Registration Office Hours for Thursday, October 5, 2023

ADDED: Registration Office Hours on Thursday, October 12, 2023 6:00 – 7:30 PM Pacific

FAQ SECTION: NEW UPDATE TUESDAY 10/3/2023

Five Things First

  1. Patient Care schedules are created using EVOS – an automated system that simultaneously considers your scheduling preferences, your classmates’ preferences, and site availability to create the best schedule both for you individually and your class overall.
  2. You can make up to 20 preferences. Preference #1 should be what’s most important to you for your schedule, preference #2 what’s the next most important, etc.
  3. Preferencing opens on Friday, September 29, 2023, at 10 AM Pacific and closes on Tuesday, October 10, 2023, at 5 PM Pacific Friday, October 13, 2023, at 4 PM Pacific (close date extended). This is a hard close, and EVOS won’t reopen if you’re late. You’ll get a full schedule, but you won’t have any say-so in its creation.
  4. Info about how to make and SAVE preferences is in the User Guide .
  5. Need help? Read the website – particularly the FAQ section – and come to Registration Office hours (see your email for the link and times).

Goals and Process

The six required Patient Care clerkships are scheduled via an automated system which uses student preferences and course availability to create the best possible schedules both for you individually and for your class overall.

Our goals are (1) to create complete schedules that result in unimpeded progress toward the MD degrees, and (2) to do so using an equitable process that takes student preferences into account. 

To meet these goals we use an automated program called EVOS – eValue Optimization Scheduling. EVOS considers all student preferences simultaneously to produce schedules.

The Outcome: Your Schedule

Your schedule will look very different from your Foundations schedule.

  • Order: Foundations courses are taught in the same order for everyone, but there’s no set order for Patient Care. The order of your schedule will differ from the order of many of your classmates.
  • Location: Unlike having a single Foundations site, you’ll get to travel, learn, and help patients across the WWAMI region. More info about traveling in the Patient Care phase is here.

The Good News + An Important Caveat

Good news: You’ll end up with a Patient Care schedule that gives you unimpeded progress toward your degree.

The Caveat: It’s not possible for you and every one of your classmates to get everything you want at the time and location and in the order you want it. Your classmates also have preferences and sites don’t have unlimited availability, and your schedule is impacted by both. You may get more of your preferences than other students or you may get fewer – it all depends on what you entered, the priority you gave it, and what everybody else entered and prioritized. Rest assured, though, that the scheduling algorithm considers all of this simultaneously and equitably.

The bottom line: Your schedule will be the best result possible based on your preferences, the preferences of your classmates, and availability limits.

Patient Care Scheduling Timeline

When do students make preferences? When do you get a schedule?  Find the timeline here.

All About EVOS

What is EVOS? How does it work? What should you expect out of this process? Answers to these (and more) are here.

What won’t EVOS do?

EVOS won’t: Give you everything you preference.

    • What you get (and when and where) depends upon a lot of things, including your classmates’ preferences. If 20 students make their #1 preference the same course at the same site in the same time period, not everyone can be scheduled for it if there’s only availability for 5 students.
    • How specific you are in your preferences makes a difference in how easily EVOS can match you to courses. See suggestions for preferencing for details.
    • Tight course availability in some departments means that EVOS doesn’t have a lot of wiggle room to schedule. Since the goal is uninterrupted progress toward your degree, EVOS may place you at sites and at times you did not preference rather than omitting a required clerkship.

EVOS won’t: Override enrollment maximums (i.e. put more students in a course than there is room for). Departments set enrollment size based on preceptor availability at the time the course is taught, site guidelines, accreditation standards, and educational best practices. The school (and EVOS) honors those decisions.

EVOS won’t: Open back up if you miss the preferencing end date and time. It closes, starts computing, and hangs out a do-not-disturb sign.

EVOS won’t: Read your mind! EVOS will work with whatever you enter, so it’s very important to follow the specific instructions. Translation: READ THE DIRECTIONS! Seriously. Just take a minute to read them.

THE BOTTOM LINE

EVOS will schedule your Patient Care clerkships so that you – and all your classmates – are making unimpeded progress toward your degree, and EVOS will do it via an equitable mathematical process that considers all student preferences simultaneously.

Preparing to use EVOS

Most of your work with EVOS will actually be done before you even log in, so follow these Steps to Prepare.

Strategies for Preferencing

We’ve been told over and over (and over) by both the eValue team (they run the EVOS process) and other schools who use it is that the best thing you can do when you enter your preferences is to enter what is important to you. Period. This is our second year to run EVOS, and we found this to be absolutely true.

A preference, including a top preference, is not a guarantee that you will be assigned that preference. A preference is an input into EVOS. Other inputs considered by EVOS include your classmates’ preferences (considered equally and simultaneously with yours) and site availability/enrollment maximums. Because you can’t predict what other students will preference it is almost impossible to strategize beyond entering what is important to you.

There are some things you can do to increase the chances you’ll get some of your preferences, but we wouldn’t call them strategies. Here are a few suggestions.

How do I use EVOS?

Are there instructions on how to use EVOS? Yes? Can I change my preferences? Absolutely…up to a point.

Click for the EVOS User Guide.

FAQs

Answers to all sorts of questions will be posted here, so keep checking (and keep sending us questions!)

 

CURRENT MS 4 STUDENTS ALREADY TAKING E&F COURSES: ADD/DROP VIA OPEN SCHEDULING 

Adjust your E&F schedule by adding or dropping courses via a process called Open Scheduling.

Find out how Open Scheduling works here.

CURRENT MS 3 STUDENTS NEEDING TO SCHEDULE E&F COURSES FOR YOUR FOURTH YEAR

Five Things First

  1. Students are responsible for ensuring that they register for all the courses they need to graduate. Graduation requirements can be found here.  The Clerkship Graduation Audit is a valuable tool to help you keep track.
  2. E&F schedules are created using a three step process. The E&F Scheduling Calendar is your friend.
    • Phase 1: Request and receive permission from the departments to enroll in their permission-only courses.
    • Phase 2: Enter your preferences for E&F courses that do not require permission using EVOS – an automated system that simultaneously considers your scheduling preferences, your classmates’ preferences, and site availability to create the best schedule both for you individually and your class overall.
    • Phase 3: Use Open Scheduling to add visiting electives or drop/add after E&F Phase 2 schedules are released so that you end up with a full schedule that includes all course requirements to graduate.
  3. E&F Phase 2 preferencing is both very similar to and very much unlike Patient Care preferencing.
    • Similarities:
      • Preference #1 should be what’s most important to you for your schedule, preference #2 what’s the next most important, etc.
      • Info about how to make and SAVE preferences is in the same User Guide.
    • Differences:
      • You can make more preferences – up to 30.
      • You received a full Patient Care schedule even if you didn’t preference a specific clerkship or if you didn’t enter any preferences. This is not true for E&F.  Check here to see what happens if you do not enter preferences or do not enter preferences for a specific course type.
  4. Need help? Read the website – particularly the FAQ section – and come to Registration Office hours (see your email for the link and times).
  5. Understand that your fourth-year schedule is very likely to change over the course of your MS 4 year. You’ll make schedule changes as you receive offers to do away electives, as you narrow your focus for specialty, etc., so it’s important to keep track of your graduation requirements as you make those adjustments.

E&F Scheduling Timeline

See the E&F Scheduling Calendar here.

We’ll update the calendar for Phase 3 as we narrow that down, so please check back.

Before Doing Anything: Plan for Your Fourth Year

Fourth-year course scheduling is part of the larger process of planning for your fourth year. Find the Guide to 4th Year Planning here.

Once you’re familiar with your overall MS 4 year, follow these Steps to Prepare for Scheduling.

Use the Explore and Focus 2024-2025 Worksheet with the SOM course timeframes to help you plan your schedule choices.

Phase 1: Permission-Only Courses

In Phase 1, you’ll request and receive approval from departments to take permission-only courses.

For tons of information about permission-only courses – including how to identify them and how to request them – click here.

A must read: Permission-only courses.

More to read: Thinking of a residency in Emergency Medicine? Important scheduling requirements are here.

Note for APCs and Sub-Is:

Say you know 50 Trick or Treaters are coming to your house for Halloween, so you buy 50 pieces of candy and leave it out on your porch. After a while your doorbell rings, and it’s Trick or Treaters #49 and #50 wanting to know where their candy is. Hmmm….looks like somebody/somebodies took more than one piece, not thinking it might leave someone else with nothing. Not the greatest analogy (we know), but the same thing can happen with APCs and Sub-Is. Because of that:

  • You will only be able to schedule one APC during this phase, even if you have permission for more than one. There are only so many APCs, and since everyone has to have one to graduate we have to ensure that every student in your class has one on their schedule before we open up the opportunity to take more than one.
  • You will only be able to schedule one Sub-I during this phase, even if you have permission for more than one. There are only so many Sub-Is, and since everyone has to have one to graduate we have to ensure that every student in your class has one on their schedule before we open up the opportunity to take more than one.

Thanks for your understanding about this!

Phase 2: Courses Not Requiring Permission

New this year: EVOS takes on E&F!

Similar to how Patient Care courses are scheduled, E&F scheduling for courses that do not need department permission will be done for the first time this year via an automated system – eValue Optimization Scheduling (EVOS). You’ll remember that EVOS uses student preferences and course availability to create the best possible schedules both for you individually and for your class overall.

Why the change? In past years E&F schedules were created with each rising MS 4 having a series of four Zoom appointments from late October to mid-January with a Registration team member. Students were randomly assigned times for these appointments and were excused from clerkship duties to attend. Unfortunately that attendance wasn’t always possible (e.g., it’s not easy to leave an in-progress surgery, return 20 minutes later, and be up to speed on what you missed), and rescheduling meant students lost their place in line.  Reg team members held more than 1,200 Zoom meetings to schedule students. EVOS resolves many of these issues – you can preference 24/7 when EVOS is open without missing clerkship time, there is no “order” of meetings so that some students go first while others go later with only some types of courses able to be scheduled at certain meetings, and everyone’s preferences are considered simultaneously.

To help you remember a bit about EVOS, refresh your memory here (it uses Patient Care wording but the same processing algorithm applies to E&F) and review the “What won’t EVOS do?” section under the Patient Care tab above.

New FAQs added at the link in the next sentence 11/21/2023.

All details about preferencing and EVOS – including answers to many of your questions – may be found here.

Terms to know

What’s an APC? A Sub-I? Why should you care about credits? Speak the E&F scheduling language and know what these terms mean.

Guardrails (AKA Other Really, Really Important Requirements to Graduate)

In addition to your course requirements there are also other very (very) important requirements surrounding your courses. You need to know these to make your schedule one that meets all of your graduation requirements.

Time in Seattle

Credit Limit in a Specialty

USMLE Step 1 Policy

Scheduling Policies

Clinical Elective Clerkships Add/Drop Policies (see last paragraph)

Course Withdrawal (Drops)

FAQs

How much time should you take off to study for Step 2 CK? What about time off for residency interviews?

Find answers to all this and much more here.

Resources & Links

Find what you need fast. Coming soon!

2024-25 UPDATES

Registration held a VSLO webinar via Zoom on Tuesday, January 30.  You can find the slidedeck for the webinar here and the recording of the webinar here.

SUMMARY OF THE AWAY ELECTIVE PROCESS

What is an away rotation? Who can take these?

Away rotations — also called away electives, aways, or visiting electives — are short-term courses typically offered at teaching hospitals that are either an AAMC-member institution or have at least one Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) or American Osteopathic Association (AOA)-accredited program.

Students who have completed their required Patient Care clerkships may take away rotations.

Should I take an away rotation?

This decision is based on a variety of factors, including your desired specialty, your level of certainty about that specialty, personal factors, etc. Your Specialty Career Advisor can help you determine the best answer for your situation, while your UWSOM Career Advisor can answer general questions about Away rotations. For more information about Aways in the context of specialty exploration and residency application, visit the UWSOM Career Advising Away page.

Am I required to take an away elective?

No. Away electives are not required to graduate.

Can away rotations count toward graduation requirements?

Yes! Away rotations may count for up to four weeks of elective credit toward graduation requirements if approved (see below).

How do I find and apply for an away rotation?

Use the AAMC’s Visiting Student Learning Opportunities (VSLO) Program

 Many – perhaps most – US medical schools, teaching hospitals, and health systems use a centralized application service called the Visiting Student Learning Opportunities Program (VSLO)

    • Find participating institutions – also called host institutions – here.
    • Away electives being offered by participating institutions are listed here.
    • A great starting point for students who are new to navigating the VSLO system can be found here , a step-by-step guide to VSLO is here, and FAQs may be found here.
    • You can sign into VSLO here.
    • For VSLO assistance: call (202) 478-9878 or contact them online.

Apply Directly to Non-VSLO Programs

    • If a medical school, teaching hospital, or health system does not use VSLO, go to the institution’s website to research visiting elective opportunities and to find application instructions.
    • You may also find the Extramural Electives Compendium (EEC) helpful for locating non-VSLO programs.

How Do I Get Credit for an Away Elective?

THIS IS IMPORTANT:

Your acceptance of a visiting elective does not automatically add it to your schedule or enroll you in it for credit at UW SOM. You are responsible for making sure any away elective (VSLO, non-VSLO, military, international) gets added to your schedule.

UWSOM does not permit retroactive scheduling. If you forget to begin or complete the entire process outlined below prior to the start of the visiting elective you will not receive credit for it.

THE DETAILS OF HOW TO RECEIVE CREDIT FOR AN AWAY ROTATION ARE HERE. Read and follow directions carefully.

A summary of steps is here.

Visiting Institution Requirements

Host institutions vary in their requirements for visiting students. You may be asked for some, all, or one of the following:

REQUIREMENTHOW TO MEET REQUIREMENT
Compliance Requirements:

Background Check
Basic Life Support (BLS)
Drug Testing
HIPAA Training
Mask Fit
OSHA Training		Some institutions request compliance documents be uploaded directly by UWSOM. The Compliance department will monitor and upload documentation on your behalf that is required from UWSOM automatically.

Some institutions request that you upload your own compliance documents. If so, go to your eValue personal record to locate these documents and upload. You may also download documents from your Castlebranch UW71 Compliance Tracker or your UX54 Immunizations Tracker accounts.

Questions? somcompl@uw.edu
Curriculum Vitae (CV)Review the Career Advising CV resources and make updates using the template provided.

Touch base with Career Advisors at a CV Group Review Session. Sign up here.
ImmunizationsIf you need to upload your immunization record: Follow the instructions here. See the FAQ section under "Immunization Records are required for my clinical site/employer/provider. How do I obtain a copy?" Communicate with the Health Sciences Immunization Program (HSIP) at myshots@uw.edu if you need to update any records in your CastleBranch accounts.

If you need us to sign a form: Fill out your name/clerkship info on the form, then email the PDF to somcompl@uw.edu. SOM Compliance will verify by accessing your CastleBranch account, sign the form, and return the form to you.
Letter of Good Standing (LOGS)For LOGS requests from a VSLO institution that SOM needs to upload: We are usually automatically notified of the need for this in VSLO and will upload as requested.

For LOGS you upload -or- LOGS for nonVSLO programs: Email somreg@uw.edu with the addressee name, title, physical address, and email.
Letter of Recommendation (LOR)Complete a Request for a Letter of Recommendation and give it to your letter writer.
Personal Health InsuranceSince UWSOM does not require personal health insurance, you will need to provide that proof if requested by a host institution.
Personal Statement/Statement of InterestReview Career Advising's personal statement resources for assistance.
Transcript

Note: Want us to upload an updated transcript? Follow the same steps.		Order an electronic official transcript. Once logged in to Parchment (the service that provides UW transcripts), set the Delivery Destination as follows:
1. Click "I'm sending to myself or another individual"
2. Select the icon for "Electronic: Delivered by Email"
3. Enter recipient information as follows:
>>>> UWSOM
>>>> somreg@uw.edu
>>>> somreg@uw.edu
4. Click continue.

SOM Registration will upload your transcript once we receive it.

IMPORTANT: Do not order a printed and mailed transcript as these cannot be legibly uploaded.

Tip: Check your unofficial transcript FIRST to ensure it is accurate and up to date.
USMLE Step Score ReportSome programs will accept the score report that you received from the NBME. If they require an official score report transcript from the NBME, visit the USMLE website for instructions.

Note: We are prohibited by the NBME from reporting/releasing scores.

You matched – congratulations! Let the deluge of paperwork begin!

Review the Residency Paperwork Slide Deck from the March 2023 MS 4 class meeting or check out the specifics that apply to you below.

An important first step

You will need to be registered for TTR before any residency paperwork/letters can be generated.

If you haven’t already, go do that now please.

Where did you match?

What you need depends on where you matched.

In Washington state

  • Before graduation:
    • UW SOM Registration sends the Washington Medical Commission a Letter of Expected Graduation.​
    • This is not automatic. YOU MUST COMPLETE the Consent to Release Certification of Expected Graduation before we can send the letter.​
    • DO NOT submit the “Request for Medical School Transcripts” form from the Washington State Department of Health.
  • After your degree is posted:
    • YOU MUST ORDER your final transcript from the University of Washington online here.

Outside of Washington State

  • Paperwork needed varies by state and institution
  • If a form is required, make sure to fill out applicant information and/or signed release if required
  • Forms must be requested using the Residency Paperwork Request Form

Transcripts

Transcripts are ordered from online here from the University of Washington.

Note:  The Office of the University Registrar manages transcripts, and SOM has no control into these processes.

Pro Tip: Check your unofficial transcript on MyUW before ordering to ensure all grades are recorded correctly and your MD is posted. Unofficial copies can be downloaded by MyUW for free.

For most June 2023 grads, the MD will be posted to transcripts during the last two weeks of June/first week of July.

Forms

Have an out-of-state licensure form? Hospital form? Military completion form? Request using the Residency Paperwork Request Form.

An important note about wording on a form:

  • “Has graduated”: We cannot complete the form until your MD degree is on your transcript (see “transcripts” above).
  • “Has completed all degree requirements for the MD”: We can complete the form provided all grades have been posted and all requirements (course and exams) met.
  • “Is expected to graduate”: We can complete these forms now provided all degree requirements have been scheduled.

 

Diploma and Diploma Copy

Keep your address current in myUW since your diploma will be mailed to you.

Diplomas for June graduates are typically mailed in the summer.

Note: The Office of the University Registrar manages these, not the SOM. Contact the Graduation and Academic Records office with questions: diploma@uw.edu.

For more information – including how to get Certified Electronic Diploma (CeDiploma) AFTER your paper diploma is issued – go here.

Pro tip: We highly encourage you to get a Certified Electronic Diploma – it’s free!

FAQs

My residency program starts on June 1, 2023, and I need a form completed and returned to them before then. Is this possible?

It depends.  We can verify that you’ve completed requirements once all your grades are submitted to eValue or GradePage, but we can’t verify that you’ve graduated/received the Doctor of Medicine degree until the Office of the University Registrar posts your degree to your transcript in late June/early July.

My residency program can’t wait until after degrees are posted in late June / early July, and need some sort of verification now. What do I do?

UW grade posting and transcript timelines are non-negotiable, so we can provide you or your program a letter confirming expected completion of graduation requirements and/or expected graduation, with estimated timelines if necessary. Request such a letter using the Residency Paperwork Request Form.

I submitted a “Request for Transcripts” form from the Washington State Department of Health but my transcript wasn’t sent. Why?

The Washington State DOH “Request for Transcripts” form is not a valid way to request transcripts. You must order transcripts directly from the Office of the University Registrar instead. Any “Request for Transcripts” forms received by our office will not be processed.

What can I do to help along my residency paperwork?

Make sure you are registered for Transition to Residency in Spring 2023. In addition, you can check your clinical grades on your Clerkship Graduation Audit (this report refreshes overnight). The Clerkship Graduation Audit also tells you if you are on track to graduate. May sure you are checking with your clerkship administrators to ensure you have completed all rotation requirements and final grades are submitted by the department.

Is there a way to expedite getting my diploma, or ordering my diploma to be sent to my residency program?

The UW Graduation and Academic Records Office typically generates Doctor of Medicine diplomas sometime in July or August, but it could take as long as 3 months after graduation. Contact diploma@uw.edu with questions.

Who can I contact for NPI registration?

Check with your residency program.