In this issue:
- Non-Clinical Electives Are Open for Registration
- Rural Underserved Opportunities Program (RUOP) Applications Are Open
- ICYMI: AOA Research Fellowship Opportunity
- Career Advising Tip of the Month
Non-Clinical Electives Are Open for Registration
Non-Clinical Electives (NCEs) are available now for registration! Please register before the deadline on Monday, January 5, 2026!
Please visit the following webpages to view the electives offered at your site:
For Seattle students
For Spokane, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho students
Important points to keep in mind:
- Students register for electives just as they do for required blocks, so you must follow the UW registration deadlines (See the UW Academic Calendar for details).
- Monday, January 5, 2026, is when the late registration fee ($25) begins.
- Electives are optional and always secondary to required coursework. Required sessions and exams take priority. With prior approval, some electives may allow students to miss a limited session if there is a conflict with required coursework. However, no exam may ever be missed for elective participation—exams always take precedence.
- Electives do not always run on the same schedule as medical school classes. Please double-check the dates and times, including final exam times, start and end quarter dates, etc.
- If you register for the course and do not participate, you will receive an NC grade. Please drop the course if you are not planning to attend.
To find out more information about registration deadlines, late course changes/adds/drops etc. for NCEs, please visit the Non-Clinical Elective Registration webpage.
Rural Underserved Opportunities Program (RUOP) Applications Are Open
Happy December from the Office of Rural Programs! We wanted to remind you that the Rural Underserved Opportunities Program (RUOP) application for the upcoming summer is now open. If you have questions about the program, you can watch the Info Session recordings on the Triple I Canvas page, or you can reach out to us at somrural@uw.edu – we hope to have you join us this summer for a valuable clinical and community medicine experience!
Links:
- General RUOP Application (non-TRUST students)
- TRUST RUOP Application (TRUST students only)
AOA Carolyn L. Kuckein Student Research Fellowship
The UW AOA chapter invites you to apply for the 2026 AOA Carolyn L. Kuckein Student Research Fellowship. UW AOA will be nominating one student from UWSOM-WWAMI to represent the UW chapter at the national selection. The award includes a $7,000 scholarship to support your research, to be conducted over a 2-12-month period (minimum of 240 hours). The research should focus on clinical investigation, basic laboratory research, epidemiology, social science/health services research, leadership, or professionalism.
This opportunity is open to first- and second-year students who do not already have and are not pursuing a PhD. You do not need to be a member of AOA to apply, and the opportunity is open to students at all WWAMI sites. Additional information, including a list of required application components, can be found here.
All application materials must be submitted via email to the members listed below by 11:59 PM PST on December 21, 2025.
Cheri Chambers [cheriliu@uw.edu]
Miranda Li [mli62@uw.edu]
Brian Riley [briley1@uw.edu]
Crystal Tam [crysjt8@uw.edu]
Career Advising Student Advisory Board Tip of the Month
This advice is for all MS1 students and includes first generation and BIPOC student lenses.
Winter break is a great time for early specialty exploration! Did you get a chance to take the specialty assessment we suggested last month? If so, now you can check out the AAMC Careers in Medicine (CiM) Specialty Profiles and view the five most frequently encountered conditions for each specialty.
To explore specialties further, go to Career Advising’s Explore Your Career page. From here, you can access more resources and advice. This information will be super helpful when Career Advisors begin meeting with your class starting in January!
Winter break is also a great time to start building a CV for school projects, programs, and professional connections. Career Advising has a CV webpage for instructions, a three-part CV video series, and a really useful CV template.
Reviewed by MS4 Cara Chapman. Originally written by alum Shanelle Briggs, MD.
Career Advising welcomes tips and ideas from all students. Please reach out to Career Advising at medadv@uw.edu.
This link will take you to past information for MS1s.