Campus Assignment Process
As the largest state medical school, UNC School of Medicine takes great pride in students serving and learning across the state during their clinical years. The school offers students the opportunity to complete the Application Phase at one of four campuses: Asheville, Charlotte, Wilmington, and Central (Chapel Hill, RTP, and Triad areas).
While each campus has the same objectives and assessments, they also offer unique curricular features. As a commitment to serve the public of the state, the School of Medicine ensures each campus reaches student placement capacity. To aid the school in assignments, students must submit a form including information about their campus preferences. The form allows students to rank the four campuses and two sites (Asheville, Charlotte, Central, Greensboro, Raleigh, Wilmington), with 1 indicating first choice and 6 indicating their last choice. A student’s first choice is not guaranteed and students may be placed at any site.
To inform rankings, the school offers information about the Application Phase and each campus/site during MS 1 class meetings. Additionally, campuses host open houses. Students are strongly encouraged to attend open houses to see the physical location, community amenities, and meet campus faculty and staff. Each campus also maintains a website where students can gather information.
Process and Timeline
When assigning students to campuses, the school prioritizes student preference while also maximizing use of clinical placements. Each student will rank the six campus/site locations in order of preference. We will assign each student a lottery number through a random number generator. We will fill the campus starting with the lowest lottery number (lottery number 1) with the students’ first choices until those are full and then move to second choices and so forth. The goal of the lottery is to minimize bias in the assignment process.
Some students have special circumstances that require an exemption from the lottery process. These include:
- Primary and substantive responsibilities for the care of another person who is unable to live independently (brief explanation of caregiving responsibilities required)
- A health problem that requires frequent in-person health care at an established provider (documentation required)
- Research within the MD/PhD program
- FIRST Scholars
- Funded Kenan Urban/Rural Scholars
Students can indicate their wish to request an exemption on the campus placement preference form. The campus assignment team (Valerie Glassman, Mary Hauser, and Elizabeth Steadman) will review requests for exemptions and notify students if they have been approved. Students with approved exemptions will be assigned to their preferred campus before the lottery process.
Students will be asked to complete the campus placement form in late March and placements will be announced in early April. Students who have significant concerns based on their campus placement can follow an appeals process. This process will be confidential and administered through the Student Support Committee in the Office of Student Affairs.
For questions about campus placement, please contact Senior Directors of Curricular Affairs, Mary Hauser (mary_hauser@med.unc.edu) and Senior Director of Student Affairs, Valerie Glassman (Valerie_Glassman@med.unc.edu).