Advising and Career Development

Each student will be assigned an Advisor. The Advisor will discuss and update the student’s Individualized Learning Plan (ILP) at each of their quarterly meetings throughout the student’s tenure at medical school. The Advisor serves a critical role in providing academic and career counseling, as well as wellbeing and other student support services essential to a successful medical student experience. Advisors are fully dedicated to medical student advising and career development and have no responsibilities outside of this role. Each student will participate in a minimum of 12-15 (roughly quarterly) 1:1 advising sessions with his/her Advisor.

Topics to be reviewed in each session will include:

• academic performance,
• career exploration activities, and
• overall wellbeing.

The in-person sessions will focus on goal-setting, monitoring of progress, and reviewing the performance metrics and draft versions of the ILP. The Advisor will assist students in formulating and refining their ILP, as well as linking students to needed resources for academic success, educational and career exploration experiences, and other student support services.

Advisors also coordinate the Mentoring Program and help students connect with and develop relationships with Specialty, Affinity and Research Mentors. In addition, advisors provide workshops on a variety of career development topics throughout the medical school timeline, as part of the SOM’s Careers in Medicine Program.