Scheduling Electives & Subinternships

Electives are scheduled in the fall of the third year shortly before completing the required clerkships. Students schedule electives with the Office of Student Affairs. View the full listing of the electives Yale offers.

Most electives are four weeks long. However, students may arrange to spend less than four weeks with a preceptor. Performance on an elective of longer than two weeks will be evaluated using an Honors, High Pass, Pass, Fail assessment model. Electives of two weeks or less are graded as Pass or Fail.

Cancelling a Scheduled Elective

• Students must notify the Office of Student Affairs of plans to cancel the elective at least four weeks before the start of the elective. Failure to do so will result in an “Late Withdrawal” being recorded on the student’s transcript.
• Students must complete an add/drop form requesting cancellation. This must also be approved by your Academic Advisor. A copy is forwarded to the appropriate department.

Electives at Other Institutions

Students planning to do a clinical rotation at another institution must notify the Office of Student Affairs once approved for the elective. It is imperative that the student's schedule accurately reflects their activities. It is also the student’s responsibility to provide the Office of Student Affairs with the name and email address of the person who will be assessing the student's performance so that an evaluation form can be sent directly to the institution. The narrative comments and grade from this rotation will be included in the MSPE.

Most subinternships are scheduled in the last few rotation months of the third year or in the fourth year. Students must complete the required clinical clerkship components in the department in which they plan to do a subinternship; we strongly recommend that students complete most, if not all required clinical clerkships before starting a subinternship.

Subinternships are generally scheduled through MedHub. The departments have strict policies for canceling a subinternship due to the scheduling problems it creates. Students should not sign up for a subinternship unless absolutely committed to going through with it. No more than a total of three subinternships are allowed in the same specialty except under very special circumstances.

Students who want the evaluation from their subinternship to appear in their MSPE should enroll in the subinternship at the end of the third year or in the first three elective blocks of the fourth year. Evaluations received in the Office of Student Affairs after October 1, when the MSPE is sent, may be forwarded to the residency programs separately by the Office of Student Affairs.