The School of Medicine in English at Charles University has elective agreements with Penn, UCLA, UCSD, and CWRU, how do students access those US electives and how competitive is placement?

valuemd (Admin)

Formal agreements with prestigious US medical schools are a significant asset for students considering a US residency. This thread covers how the elective application process works, what the requirements are, and what students actually experienced during rotations at those US hospitals.

meenakapoor3344 (Student)

So, I've been hearing about these agreements for years, but nobody actually explains the mechanics. Does the dean's office just hand these spots out, or is there an internal application within Charles University first? Also, curious if these are real clinical rotations with patient contact or more shadowing type deals. Anyone here actually done one of these?

chloea884 (Alumni)

I did one at CWRU during my 5th year. There's an internal selection process run through the international office, you basically submit your transcript, a short essay on why you want that specific elective, and a letter from a faculty member. They rank applicants and then forward names to the partner school. CWRU has a limited number of slots per cycle so it's first come first served once you clear the internal cut.

omarfoster8812 (Student)

chloea884 (Alumni) Wait so does the internal ranking actually matter or does the US school also screen separately? I always assumed once Charles approves you you're basically in.

chloea884 (Alumni)

omarfoster8812 (Student) Both happen. Charles narrows it down then the host school still reviews your file, mostly checking immunization records, English proficiency stuff, and sometimes a short interview over zoom. For CWRU it was pretty light, they mainly wanted to confirm you had enough clinical hours logged already.