We call the MSPE the dean’s letter because it’s signed by the dean. It’s written in collaboration with the Director of Enrollment Management and Student Success who gathers information from your transcript, your signature events, your Clinical Distinction forms, and you.
It’s important to you because it’s your introduction to the residency director you hope to work with. Pretty much the first thing they learn about you is what is in this letter.
The letter follows a template and most of its features of it are consistent across all medical schools.
But TUCOM offers Clinical Distinction. A unique opportunity in your third year for you to distinguish yourself. Not only is CD an incredible learning opportunity but it takes up a lot of real estate in the dean’s letter. Here’s a sample so you can see:
What to look at here, is not the content – it’s the size of that blue box!
Everything else you did and everything you are takes up about 5-6 pages of your 8-10 page letter and this single course the Clinical Distinction Specialty Track takes up nearly 2 pages.
Why do we give so much room in this critical letter to one course? Because in this one course you have the opportunity to not only demonstrate what you are excited about, but to show that you have the capacity to be an ideal intern because you:
- Understand how to examine yourself and direct your learning towards improving your professional skills
- Understand what competency growth is and what that means about achieving the goal of being a reliable physician
- Appreciate that learning is a lifelong process, not a string of achievements, and can demonstrate your capacity to engage in that process.
The Clinical Distinction course is yours… how it shows up in this letter is about what you do in the course. You can make it show exactly what you want by creating a course that is really about you, about what makes you passionate, about what makes you dedicated, what makes you, you