Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE)

The Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE) is a written transcript of your performance in medical school and a required component of your application to residency. MSPEs are prepared in accordance with the AAMC’s guidelines. Your MSPE is only one component of your residency application; letters of recommendation, your personal statement, and interviews are all important in obtaining a residency position.

Providing information for your MSPE
You will need to submit information on your significant activities and accomplishments prior to and during medical school. The MSPE team will use this information when composing your MSPE. During Intersessions 3, Kristen Fitzhenry will give you instructions for how to submit this information.

The format of the MSPE
MSPEs include the following:

• A description of your significant accomplishments during college and prior to UCSF, followed by a description of your significant accomplishments while in medical school.
• A summary of your academic progress during medical, including a description of JMP or MSTP program, the school’s grading policy, and a list of all courses in which you have earned honors. This section must include details of any non-passing grades or remediation.
• The bulk of your MSPE comprises summary evaluation comments from FPC, clerkships, research, and Pathways to Discovery work. Descriptions of any time off or extensions are also included.
• A list of all courses scheduled to be taken prior to graduation.
• A a summative overview by Dr. Loeser commenting on your individual strengths and qualities as a candidate for postgraduate training. This paragraph includes your “adjective” (see below).
• An appendix page (Medical School Information Page) lists information and comparative statistics about your graduating class.

Your adjective
Your adjective is included in the first paragraph of the MSPE as well as the final paragraph. The five adjectives are: outstanding, superior, excellent, very good, and good. Clinical honors are used to determine eligibility for overall performance designations of outstanding and superior: Students eligible for “outstanding” have earned honors in more than half of the weeks of required core clerkships, and students eligible for “superior” have earned honors in more than one third of the weeks of required core clerkships. All students are eligible for the “excellent,” “very good,” and “good” designations. The core clerkships are weighted according to the length of the clerkship (eg, medicine is eight weeks long and therefore “heavier” than pediatrics at six weeks). The UCSF Medical School Information Page, attached to the back of every students’ MSPE, specifies the percentage of graduating students receiving each adjective, and includes a bar graph that displays proportions of honors awarded in each core clerkship.

Evaluations included in the MSPE
All summary evaluation comments for clerkships completed through Summer Block 2 are included in the MSPE. Any Fall Block 1 evaluations that are received in our office by the first week of October (deadline set each year) will also be included. There will be NO exceptions to this deadline. You can encourage your Fall Block 1 clerkship directors to submit your evaluation by this deadline, but Curricular Affairs cannot be responsible for obtaining these evaluations. The October deadline also applies to all revised evaluations, therefore it is very important that you check the accuracy of your summary evaluations as you receive them. Revisions to grades or comments must be made within eights weeks of an evaluation being posted on e*Value or received in the Office of Curricular Affairs.

If you want to convey additional evaluations to a program, you should consult with your career advisor and consider sending a copy of the evaluation directly to a program or bringing it with you to an interview. Evaluations received after the MSPE is transmitted can be sent to programs as an addendum to your MSPE, either by your request or at the institution’s discretion. The addendum will include all evaluations received that were not included in the MSPE. We will only create one addendum, so be sure that this is the most appropriate way to send recent evaluations to programs, and that all relevant courses are complete before requesting the addendum. An addendum becomes a permanent part of your MSPE.

Reviewing a draft of your MSPE
All students have the opportunity to review a draft of their MSPE in early October. You will have the opportunity to correct any inaccuracies, but not to suggest changes to content or evaluations, before it is finalized and transmitted to programs by OCA.

MSPEs are transmitted through ERAS or mailed to residency programs on November 1; MSPEs for all medical students nationwide are sent on this date.

Questions?

Kristen Fitzhenry (514-2059) coordinates the preparation and transmitting of MSPEs through ERAS for residency applications.

Alumni who need their MSPE mailed to programs or to ERAS for fellowship applications should contact Frances Harvey (476-1216) in Student Affairs.