Preclinical Coursework (MS1/MS2)

Since all preclinical students take the same core coursework in the first two years, the Records team automatically adds MS1/MS2 preclinical coursework to your schedule.

See Preclerkship Objectives for details on these courses.

Clerkship Lottery (MS3)

During the MS2 year, you will enter a clerkship lottery to submit preferences for the order of your third-year clerkship courses. Visit Clerkship Lottery for timeline and details.

Note: Tuscaloosa campus students do not participate in the clerkship lottery. The Tuscaloosa campus administrators manage scheduling for the Longitudinal Integrated Curriculum (LIC).

FYSH - Fourth Year Scheduling Lottery (MS4)

During the MS3 year, you will enter a scheduling lottery to select courses for your fourth year. These courses include acting internships and electives. Students on the Birmingham, Huntsville, and Montgomery campuses must complete their medicine (MI) and ambulatory acting internships (AI) on their assigned clinical campus. They may complete their surgery/critical care (SI/CI) on any campus. Tuscaloosa students complete all acting internships on the Tuscaloosa campus.

Visiting Student Electives

Fourth-year students may also complete visiting student electives at other teaching hospitals. More information about scheduling these electives is shared at the fourth-year class meeting.

Dropping/Adding Coursework

As a fourth year, you may change your schedule via the Online Schedule Change Request (OSCR). Courses may be dropped or added up to 14 days from the start of the block/sub-block (always a Monday – even if the course doesn’t meet until later in the week). Courses dropped within 14 days the beginning of the block/sub-block will incur a late drop fee of $45 which must be paid at the time of the drop via the online link provided. There is no fee to add a course. The deadline to drop or add a course is 4 p.m. on the Wednesday before a Monday block start date. Students may wish to consult with their career advisor before selecting their courses. The list of career advisors can be found on the Residency Application Resources & Timeline page.

Visit FYSH: Fouth-Year Scheduling Lottery for timeline and details.

Special Topics Lottery (MS1 – MS4)

Students are required to take four Special Topics courses during their medical education per graduation requirements (note that MSTP and OMFS students only take two weeks). The courses are typically offered twice per year during designated “Special Topics” weeks. There are typically some additional offerings in the summer between MS1 and MS2 year. The special topics registration process is announced via the This Week newsletter with instructions for sign-ups.

Note: It is highly recommended that MS1 and MS2 students consider taking special topics coursework early to provide more schedule flexibility in the MS3 and MS4 years.

Visit Special Topics Lottery for timeline and details.

Co-Enrolled Courses (MS1 – MS4)

A co-enrolled course is an optional, semester-long elective course that occurs concurrently with pre-clerkship and/or clinical courses. Each course is worth 2 weeks of elective credit. With the exception of the first term in medical school, all medical students in good academic standing are eligible to take co-enrolled electives. Co- enrolled courses differ from special topics and cannot be used to fulfill special topics requirements. For more details, visit Co-Enrolled Courses.