Visiting Clerkship Program

Visiting Clerkship Program of the Office for Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Partnership

The Visiting Clerkship Program (VCP) provides support for fourth-year and qualified third-year medical students, especially those from groups underrepresented in medicine (URiM) as defined by the AAMC (e.g. African American, Hispanic, Latinx, American Indian, Alaskan Native) to participate in the Harvard Medical School (HMS) Exchange Clerkship Program. The VCP is sponsored by the Minority Faculty Development Program of the HMS Office for Diversity Inclusion and Community Partnership.

The Visiting Clerkship Program accepts students for May through November month rotations. VCP will support students for 1 (one) clerkship month. Students are welcome to complete additional clerkships, but the VCP cannot provide financial or programmatic support for those extra months. Please visit the HMS Registrar’s Exchange Clerkship page for the dates for each month-long elective. These dates are not flexible. HMS places students in over 200 clerkships in all specialties across the Harvard-affiliated hospitals. Review these options within the ExClerk Catalog. Placement and scheduling is completed through the AAMC Visiting Student Application Service (VSAS) and is monitored by the HMS Registrar’s Exchange Clerkship Program administrator. Students remain registered at their own schools while participating in exchange clerkships at Harvard Medical School. They are not officially enrolled as students at Harvard University.

Benefits

  • Mentoring and Networking: participants are assigned a faculty advisor and offered opportunities to network with HMS faculty, students, and staff.

  • Stipend: Participants receive a stipend of $2,500 that is awarded at the end of the clerkship period.

Eligibility

  • Identify as having a background in, or having strong support of, underrepresented and disadvantaged populations

  • Be a full-time third or fourth year MD or DO student in good standing at an accredited US medical school

  • Have completed your core clerkships in medicine, surgery, pediatrics, and obstetrics prior to the start of your rotation

  • Have completed USMLE Step 1 prior to the start of your rotation

Application Process

The VCP program accepts applications from students applying for rotations during the months of May - November. Note that spots within the VCP are limited and some applicants may be placed in a clerkship by the HMS registrar but not accepted into the VCP. In those cases, the applicant may still participate in their placed clerkship, but will not receive programmatic or financial support from the VCP.

  1. Apply to your preferred clerkships following the HMS Registrar’s VSLO application instructions.

  2. Before you begin your application for the VCP program, confirm the faculty member within your specialty who will be providing a letter of recommendation for you. You will not be able to submit your application without this information.

  3. The deadline for the VCP application is the same as the deadline for the VSLO application. However, we will continue to consider applications for the VCP program up until six weeks prior to the start of the clerkship rotation, provided that space remains in the program.

Dates and Deadlines

  1. June rotation month (5/28-6/23/24): application deadline February 28, 2024

  2. July rotation month (7/1-7/28/24): application deadline April 2, 2024

  3. August rotation month (7/29-8/25/24): application deadline April 30, 2024

  4. September rotation month (8/26-9/22/24): application deadline May 28, 2024

  5. October and November dates to be announced

Questions

For questions regarding the Visiting Clerkship Program, please contact Visiting Clerkship Program at vcp_hpsp@hms.harvard.edu