Helpful Definitions

CCE – Community Clinical Experience - Spans over the first two years of the curriculum and is characterized by an ambulatory care preceptor hosting a student in their office one afternoon twice monthly. This provides students opportunities to further develop interview, physical exam, and presentation skills learned in Doctoring.

LIC – Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship - A program designed to address the physician shortage in rural areas, allowing students to learn an evidence-based curriculum, acquire clinical skills and medical knowledge in a context of continuity with patients, medical staff, and the community.

PAL – Personalized Active Learning block - A required course designed to provide students with curricular time to pursue flexible, individualized independent learning activities to further their medical education. This is completed at the end MS1 year.

AAMC - Association of American Medical Colleges.

ACGME - Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

ERAS – Electronic Residency Application Service - The centralized online application service used to deliver the residency application, along with supporting documents, to all residency programs. 

NRMP – National Residency Matching Program  - A mathematical algorithm to place applicants into residency and fellowship positions.

NRMP ID - A unique identifier that Match applicants receive as part of their registration for an NRMP Match.

Rank Order List (ROL)  - Preferences submitted by applicants and programs used by the NRMP match algorithm.

Couples Matching - Any two applicants who link their rank order lists in an NRMP Match.

Categorical Program - A position in which full residency training is provided as required for board certification in that specialty.

Preliminary Year -  One-year positions that occur in PGY-1 (Post-Graduate Year-1), before entry into advanced specialty programs. Preliminary positions provide prerequisite training for advanced programs and lack the complete training required for board certification in a specialty.

Transitional Year -  A preliminary year training program in which trainees rotate through numerous medical and surgical rotations.

Advanced Program - Begins in PGY-2 (Post-Graduate Year-2), after one year of prerequisite training (preliminary or transitional year). These positions allow residents to complete the necessary training required for board certification in a specialty. Examples include Dermatology, Urology, Diagnostic Radiology, and Anesthesiology.

Parallel Plan - An additional, or alternative, specialty the student plans to apply to simultaneously, along with the first specialty preference, as a strategy for optimizing a successful match and securing residency training. 

Sub-Internship (“Sub-I”) -  Clinical rotation of a fourth-year medical student during which the student takes on an expanded role in patient care. The student acts in the capacity of a first-year resident, or intern, under the supervision of senior house staff and attending physicians.