MS4 Class Information – Nov. 9, 2023

Please complete data stewardship training by Wednesday, Nov. 15

UW Medicine and the UW School of Medicine require all medical students to learn how to properly safeguard confidential information and comply with standards for personal accountability for data stewardship.

Please complete the UW Privacy, Confidentiality, and Information Security Agreement PCISA requirement in the To-Do List of your UW71 Castlebranch account [mycb.castlebranch.com].

This applies to all students, including concurrent degree/MSTP students and students on a leave of absence.

Castlebranch will provide prompts to meet the UW Medicine Data Stewardship requirements. For further details, see an email distributed on the administrative Listservs on the evening of Tuesday, Nov. 7.

Be sure to upload the signed form to your UW71 CastleBranch Compliance Tracker by Nov. 15. Make sure your UW Student ID Number is on the form. Please monitor your submission to make sure it is approved.

If you have follow-up questions on how to encrypt your devices, please reference the following UW Medicine ITS Security webpage at https://depts.washington.edu/uwmedsec/ or email UWSOM Academic and Learning Technologies at somalt@uw.edu.


Too many interviews? Not enough?

Here’s guidance from your career advisors:

All students: Please read Career Advising’s Interview Season FAQs.

If you have too many interviews:

  • After reviewing the Specialty Guide section called “Securing Residency Interviews, Asking For Help” in the Residency Application Planning section, please check in with your specialty career advisor (SCA) to discuss interviews that you could release at programs not in your top priority group. Please check in with your SCA  before you release interviews to be sure you retain the right number of programs and consider your priorities for ranking.
  • Your SCA and career advisors request that you please release additional interviews so that your classmates at UWSOM and applicants across the country who do not currently have enough interviews may be able to pick up interviewsin the days ahead. This is a stressful time for our MS4s who don’t currently have enough interviews, and we want to thank you for also considering them.

If you have low interview numbers:

  • Review the Specialty Guide section called “Securing Residency Interviews, Asking For Help” in the Residency Application Planning section so you know by when to reach out to your SCA about your interview numbers
  • Please read the Interview Season FAQs
  • You are welcome to meet with your career advisor to strategize next steps after talking with your SCA. Appointments

The career advisors are here to support you during interview season, through ranking and the Match, so please don’t hesitate to reach out to them.


Information about Explore & Focus scheduling

The scheduling team has much to share for MS 4 students who have expanded and plan to graduate after June 2024 who need E&F courses.

There’s a new Explore & Focus (E&F) scheduling process. To learn about it, please see this PDF of an email with instructions for scheduling.


Public health award offered

The United States Public Health Service is sponsoring an Award for Excellence in Public Health for students graduating in 2024. This award is intended to recognize a UWSOM medical student for their commitment and dedication to service learning and public health over the course of their medical school career.

If you would like to self-nominate for this award, please fill in this nomination form by Monday, Dec. 4, 2023. For more information about the criteria for the award, see the full story.


In case you missed it, here is the previous newsletter for MS4s.

Have a wonderful week!