Visiting clerkship opportunities at Harvard-Affiliated Hospitals

Are you interested in a visiting clerkship opportunity?

We invite you to consider applying for the Visiting Clerkship Program (VCP) at one of the Harvard-Affiliated hospitals.

Participating Hospitals

Participants in the Visiting Clerkship Program will be scheduled for clerkships at one of the Harvard-affiliated teaching hospitals:

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

Clerkship Options and Scheduling

The Visiting Clerkship Program accepts students for May through November month rotations. VCP will support students for 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 (scroll down to the calendar table). These dates are not flexible.

HMS places students in over 200 clerkships in all specialties across the Harvard-affiliates. 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 in the Visiting Clerkship Program receive a stipend of $2,500 that is awarded at the end of the clerkship period.

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.
4. To access the VCP application, click here

Dates and Deadlines

Questions?
Email us at vcp_hpsp@hms.harvard.edu