A fulfilling career is among the keys to a successful life.
The Carver College of Medicine offers you many opportunities to explore and understand how to achieve your maximum career potential. We encourage you to take advantage of as many of these resources as you can.
Each opportunity is categorized according to its intended goal:
- Making a decision about which specialty you will love
- Crafting a strategy that maximizes success in achieving your chosen specialty
- Understanding the process needed to become a resident physician.
Click one of the options in the columns below to learn more about that career advising opportunity:
Med Student Counseling Center
Learning Communities
Writing and Humanities Program
In the Curriculum
| M1, Fall semester M2 | Required | Contact Kim Crist Right away you’ll be exposed to patients in outpatient clinics at UIHC and the surrounding communities. You’ll be paired with experienced clinicians so that you may begin learning about clinical communication, patient populations, medical specialties, and the roles of members of the healthcare team. In the fall of the M2 year, you’ll continue by shadowing senior medical students in the inpatient setting to prepare you for working in the clinical environment. |
| Fall semester M4 | Optional | Contact the Registrar's office. There are several reasons to do away rotations; for instance, you may want to use them as extended interviews or auditions at a location to which you might want to apply for residency. Individually Arranged Electives Form → |
Advanced Elective and Selective Clerkships
| M4 | Required | Contact the Registrar's Office Advanced clerkships allow you to understand the roles of the subspecialties within clinical medicine. Some you'll be required to select from a list of possibilities; others are elective, although a certain number of semester hours are required to graduate. Advanced Electives and Selecive Clerkships → |
Guide to CCOM Specialty Based Pathways
| M4 | Required | Contact your Community Faculty Director This resource provides information about the paths you can take to obtain a solid background in many specialties, including the elective clerkships you might wish to take. Guide to CCOM Specialty-Based Pathways → |
| Clinical Department Resources | Throughout | Optional | Contact departments |
Medical Student Counseling Center
Read this for more information on career advising services through the MSCC.
| Throughout | Optional | Contact the MSCC These workshops are designed to help you explore specialty choice options and to prepare for the NRMP residency match. |
| Spring semesters M1, M2, M3 | Optional | Contact the MSCC Through class discussions and activities, you will learn about selecting a specialty and preparing for a successful match. |
Specialty Choice Conversations
| Spring semesters M1, M2, M3, M4 | Optional | Contact the MSCC These individual counseling discussions can help you to clarify your goals and motivations for considering various career options. |
| Any time | Optional | Contact the MSCC The MSCC can put you in touch with clinical faculty who have expressed an interest in meeting with students to discuss their work. Such meetings can develop into fruitful mentoring relationships. |
| Any time | Optional | Contact the MSCC |
Learning Communities
More about Learning Communities
| Throughout | Required | Contact Jim Choi Beginning at orientation, you will be placed in a small groups of students from within the same community and class. Your NEST group will meet each semester in a meeting facilitated by the community faculty director to discuss transitions, wellness, challenges, and career opportunities. |
| Spring semester | Optional | Contact Jim Choi After M4 students have obtained their residency matches, you’ll have the opportunity to hear from them about the process, how they made their decisions, and the pitfalls they encountered. Match panels take place both in the Learning Communities and in specialty interest groups. |
| Spring semester | Optional | Contact Jim Choi Yet another opportunity to explore residency programs, especially those offered in Iowa. |
| Any time | Optional | Contact your Community Faculty Director |
College of Medicine Registrar
The Registrar's Office can help you understand the process of obtaining a residency match, especially the items below.
| Fall Semester M4 | Optional | Contact the Registrar's Office Here is a currated list of resources to help you understand the residency match process, and develop a strategy to obtain a successful match. Registrar-Curated Resources → |
Electronic Residency Application Service
| Fall semester M4 | Required | Contact the Registrar's Office ERAS is the central system medical students use apply for residency. ERAS → |
| Fall semester M4 | Required | Contact the Registrar's Office When you apply for residency programs, letters of recommendation written by faculty in your specialty or other appropriate faculty, are submitted electronically through the Letters of Recommendation Program, or LORP. |
| Fall and Spring semester M4 | Optional | Contact the Registrar's Office If you are in a committed relationship with another student seeking a residency match, it is often desirable to end up in the same city for residency. The process of obtaining such a match as a couple requires special attention. |
Specialty Specific Faculty Advisor
| M3 | Required | Contact the Registrar's Office During Phase III of the MD curriculum, students explore medical specialization options, select a specialty, and apply for the Match. Nearly always, students need assistance in navigating the decisions they must make, weighing options, and understanding the process. To ensure success, students are required to choose a specialty-specific faculty advisor (SSFA). Specialty-Specific Faculty Advisor → |
Medical Student Performance Evaluation
| Late M3/Early M4 | Required | Contact Matt Edwards |
Deans
| Any time | Optional | Contact Audra King Your deans are more than happy to meet with you one-on-one to discuss your academic progress, offer advice, and help you plot a career path. |
| Preclinical | Required | Contact Billie Ruden To provide early information on various clinical specialties, 18 of the Core UIHC clinical departments presents information unique to their specialty. In addition to academic requirements for each specialty, the presentations will also include practical information such as lifestyle issues when practicing in a particular specialty as well as patient population, length of training and subspecialty opportunities. |
Web-based Career/Specialty Mentor Request
| Any time | Optional | Contact Jim Choi Once you log in to this web site, you will be able to request a career mentor for any clinical specialties available at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. If you are undecided, you will be assigned to a learning community faculty director or one of the OSAC deans. In addition to different clinical specialties, you will also be able to specify various demographic information and training institutions for residency and/or fellowship programs. Web-based Career/Specialty Mentor Request → |
| Any time | Required | Contact Jim Choi This application allows you to track goals and milestones as you make progress toward selecting and achieving your desired match. Career Connection (Clerx) → |
| Mock Residency Interviews | Fall semester M4 | Optional | Contact Jim Choi You can participate in mock interviews throughout interview season. These 30–45-minute sessions are designed to simulate a residency interview. Each session offers both interview practice and feedback. |
Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society (AOA)
| Spring semester M3, Fall Semester M4 | Competitive | Contact Annette Griffin Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) Honor Society eligibility is based on academic achievement, with the top 25% of the class considered eligible. Students' honors hours--semester hours multiplied by 1 for Honors and 0.5 for Near Honors--determine eligibility. Those meeting this criterion are invited to apply, listing their leadership, service, research, and distinction track activities. Applications are scored alongside honors hours and some aspects of clinical evaluations to determine the nominees, and those applicants are considered by a panel of AOA members. The total inductees cannot exceed one-fifth of the class, with half initiated in junior year spring and the rest in senior year fall. AOA → |
Gold Humanism Honor Society (GHHS)
| Spring semester M3 | Competitive | Contact David Etler |
The Writing and Humanities Program
| Summer of M3, Fall of M4 | Optional | Contact Camille Socarras Every student must write a compelling personal statement and have a curriculum vitae to apply to a residency program. Getting started early, as well as seeking help, is very important. Personal Statements and CVs → |
Program in Bioethics and Humanities
| Throughout | Optional | PPC webpage This program works to help you understand, articulate, and integrate your personal and professional values and goals as you navigate your way through the four years of medical school. Personal-Professional Compass → |