Optional Summer Elective?

[Guest Jeesing]

I was looking over the U of A curriculum and i was just wondering about the optional summer elective. Is this similar to the First year elective except you complete this during your summer break?

[Guest summervirus]

They're different. The 12-hour electives in 1st and 2nd year are intended to be brief exposures to different disciplines for students in their pre-clinical years. Most students liken it to a structured shadowing experience. On the other hand, the optional summer elective refers to an opportunity for students to use the summer between 2nd and 3rd year (pre-clinical to clinical) as electives time, no different than electives scheduled during clerkship (3rd and 4th year). The reason that students are asked to sign up for the course if they wish to undertake electives is that the ensures that they are insured by the UofA to see patients. There was some talk about whether this "summer elective course" should be offered in the summer between 1st and 2nd year as well last year... from what I know, it's still only available for students going from 2nd to 3rd year.

[Guest Jeesing]

That seems very intersting, thx for the quick response summer.