Student Life
Office of Student Affairs
The Office of Student Affairs is designed to provide guidance, advice, help and administrative services to students enrolled in the School of Medicine. In addition, the office is responsible for monitoring student registration, progress and advancement, graduation and all aspects of student life related to undergraduate medical education. To this end, the office employs one full-time associate dean, two part-time assistant deans and support staff.
While the entire staff is available to offer assistance to all students, some staff members also assume a specialty area within their overall functions. These specialty areas include senior elective advising, student fellowships, career and residency advising, and counseling.
Electives
There is no elective requirement during the pre-clinical years, although many faculty members offer elective experiences. Offerings may include such diverse topics as cardiovascular pathology, medical rehabilitation, nutrition, alcohol and drug abuse and many research projects. Some experiences may have prerequisites and may be open only to sophomores.
Residency Planning
The Office of Student Affairs maintains a residency advisement program that includes counseling, referral to faculty, alumni and community resources and workshops on residency selection provided during the junior year. Recent graduates are surveyed periodically so that feedback from a number of residency programs of interest to graduates is kept as current as possible.
We have recently initiated the Careers in Medicine program. This program, developed by the Association of American Medical Colleges, helps students select careers in medicine, using a developmental approach. In the first year, the program, available on the Internet, administers questionnaires that allow a student to find areas of strength and interest. In the second year, students are encouraged to "try on different hats," by participating in various specialty interest groups. In the third year, students are given more specific information about specialties and may participate in workshops that focus on strategies for considering various clinical specialties. In the fourth year, the program is integrated with other activities in the school to help students solidify career choices.
White Coat Ceremony
The white coat is a traditional symbol of the medical clinician and scientist. It has come to represent the knowledge, skill, and integrity of the medical professional and the highest standards of professional work, whether in the classroom, laboratory or clinic. Held in November or December, the White Coat Ceremony officially welcomes freshmen students into the professional community. In mid-fall students are asked to provide a list of two or three people whom they would like to invite to this ceremony, generally parents or partners.
Following a continental breakfast, those attending hear a number of short presentations, with each speaker addressing the issue of professionalism in medicine from his or her own perspective. Speakers include representatives of the medical school administration, the pre-clinical and clinical faculty and the student body. Freshmen students are then called individually to the stage to receive their white coats from members of the faculty, as well as a copy of the school's Code of Professional Conduct. Acceptance of the white coat is an affirmation that, along with acquiring the requisite knowledge, the student will accept responsibility for developing and maintaining professional attitudes and behaviors in work and in relationships with classmates, teachers, patients and the community-at-large.
The Office of Student and Faculty Development
The Office of Student and Faculty Development provides vision and leadership in addressing faculty and student development while creating opportunities for them to reach their fullest academic and personal potential.
Responsibilities of this office are to:
- Work collaboratively with other offices in the presentation of a comprehensive faculty development program, including topics in professional development, teaching skills and research skills for campus and community-based faculty.
- Provide leadership in the school's effort to represent and collaborate with others in our diverse, multi-cultural scientific community through recruitment efforts and skill development for students and faculty.
- Coordinate a mentoring program for students in which regular meaningful contact between students and faculty works to guide and promote their career to its greatest potential.
- Promote appreciation of life-long adult learning among students, residents, and faculty.
- Advertise award, scholarship and fellowship opportunities for students and faculty, and assist in the processing of materials for these opportunities.
The Office of Student and Faculty Development coordinates programs for high school and college students that are designed to increase the number of students entering the medical profession. The office works closely with the director of recruitment in the Office of Admissions to recruit a diverse group of talented students to the School of Medicine, the Office of Academic Development to retain these students and the Office of Student Research to offer them opportunities in research projects.
For additional information contact:
Donna Parker, MD
Associate Dean for Student and Faculty Development
University of Maryland School of Medicine
655 West Baltimore Street-Room M-006
Baltimore, Maryland 21201
(410) 706-7689
Student Government
The Student Council is the organization recognized by the medical school administration as the official representative body of the registered students at the School of Medicine. Council duties include disbursing student activities funds according to the needs of its members and coordinating student input in institutional administrative policy decisions. Student Council officers serve as student representatives to national meetings of organizations that guide national educational and medical policies. The council also conducts elections of all class officers.
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