Residency applications

The Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE) letter, previously known as the Dean's Letter, is a sequential and objective evaluation of a medical student's academic performance throughout medical school. This document is very important to students and their residency programs, and as such, a great deal of work goes into compiling the MSPE in liaison with a number of different departments across the University and School. All U.S. medical schools compile MSPEs for each graduating student. It is a required part of every U.S. residency application. The MSPE is a permanent record and used in perpetuity. It is not just used for residency applications, it is also used if a graduate applies for a second residency, a postresidency fellowship, and sometimes required for recredentialing years after graduating. 

The MSPE has a standardized format set by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). It presents an honest evaluation of your performance in medical school and your assets for residency/fellowship application. It includes summative comments as they appear in clerkship evaluations. Any serious academic difficulties, disciplinary/professionalism issues, or gaps in attendance must be explained in the MSPE. Students are allowed to review their own MSPE before it is uploaded to ERAS. Students may request changes only to correct factual errors, punctuation, etc. As a UQ-Ochsner student, the MSPE structure is the same as all US medical schools, except for the introductory paragraph which explains the partnership between UQ and Ochsner. Students and graduates do not receive copies of the MSPE. If a copy is needed to apply for fellowships or other postgraduate applications, please contact StudentAffairs@ochsner.org to request this and an official copy will be sent directly to the organisation.

Summary Statement:  As part of the standardized format, the MSPE has a summary section which includes a summative assessment of students' comparative performance in medical school, relative to peers, in differentiating among levels of student performance. Although The University of Queensland is a nonranking institution, for the purpose of the MSPE, UQ-Ochsner students are clustered by quartile based on performance from their preclinical and core clinical clerkship grades. The categories are: Superior, Outstanding, Excellent, and Very Good. Only grades from Years 1 through 3 amongst the UQ-Ochsner Cohort are used in determining the cluster category included in the MSPE summary statement. Year 4 grades are not included in the cluster statement because of differences in student schedules and the relative weights of the clerkships.

MSPE Contents

• Noteworthy characteristics
• Pre-clinical narrative and grades
• Grades and CPA comments from Year 3 - each clinical placement
• Grades and CPA comments for Blocks 1 - 3 of Year 4
• Graphic charts next to each clinical placement – indicates comparative performance amongst cohort
• Optional elective (if applicable)
• Blocks 4 - 6 are listed - grades and CPA comments are added after graduation

MSPE Meeting & Process

MSPE meetings are scheduled with students' Medical Society Heads beginning in mid-June of each year. Students are scheduled depending upon the availability of their Society Head. Because of this, schedule changes are not allowed. Calendar appointments will be sent to students' Ochsner email accounts.

Prior to the MSPE meeting:

• Students should review the symposium recording of Preparing Your Personal Statement and CV.
  • Please refer to the CV and Personal Statement section of the website for additional resources.
• Students are required to complete the MSPE Noteworthy Characteristics Worksheet.
  • MSPE Noteworthy Characteristics Worksheet-PDF version
  • MSPE Noteworthy Characteristics Worksheet-Word version
  • Please refer to the Noteworthy Characteristics Guidelines.
• Students must submit their MSPE Noteworthy Characteristics Worksheet, Personal Statement and CV to med.ocsStudentAdmin@uq.edu.au by beginning of May of Year 4.

During the MSPE meeting:

• Society Heads will discuss with students to ultimately determine 3 characteristics that will go into the MSPE.
• Students will review their MSPE and their Society Head will provide feedback on their Personal Statement and CV.

After the MSPE meeting:

• The Society Head will approve the student's final 3 Noteworthy Characteristics. 
• The student should submit any updated versions of their Personal Statement and CV to med.ocsStudentAdmin@uq.edu.au for their files.