Visiting Students

For the academic year 2022-2023, visiting students will be accepted for an away rotation at our institution starting July 5, 2022, with the application responses provided through VSAS in June 2022. VSAS will open on March 30, 2022 for applications for submission. Applications will be reviewed and responded to ~35 days before the start date being requested.

Please be aware that the following departments will not be accepting visiting students this academic year: Family Medicine, OBGYN, Psychology, and Surgery. This includes all core rotations and electives within these departments. There are also few rotations within other departments which have been closed. Please continue to review VSLO/VSAS for any electives that might have been closed since then due to limitations to our clinical capacity.

Beginning with the 2010-2011 Academic Year, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School has been using VSLO, the Visiting Student Learning Opportunities program, to receive visiting student applications. 

To apply, please complete the VSLO application process for your preferred electives & dates. For more information on our visiting student electives, please contact:

Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Office of the Registrar
675 Hoes Lane, Room TC-111
Piscataway, New Jersey 08854-5635
Email:  RegistrarVSAS@rwjms.rutgers.edu

Eligibility:

Students must be enrolled at a U.S. LCME-accredited medical school or a  participating COCA accredited AACOM member college and are applying for senior (4th year) away electives. Please note that pre-clinical and 3rd year medical students are not eligible to apply for enrollment. Thoroughly review the application requirements below and complete the appropriate forms. Once completed, you will need to upload them onto your VSLO application as we will not be able to do this for you. ALL correspondence for visiting students is via EMAIL. No phone calls will be accepted unless returning a call from the Registrar's Office.

Key items to consider when applying to Rutgers RWJMS: 

• We only review visiting students’ applications 30-35 days before the start date of the application. Even if you apply in April for an August rotation, we are unable to review until September. 
• Priority is given to RWJMS students, which makes it difficult for us to provide capacity until 30 days before the start date.  
• All approvals are subject to capacity and availability at the time of acceptance, 30 days prior to the start date. 
• All your applications must be complete when submitted. Please make sure to review all requirements below, and please make sure you submit a criminal background check within 12 months of the start date. 

• If you are a student applying for the EMED program, please be aware that students will need to undergo EMR training and your Fit testing cards are required. 

Please complete the following:

1. Essential Functions Form
2. Provide a Copy of a Background Check having been completed within one (1) year of the anticipated start date of the elective.
3. COVID-19 Vaccination Card (Post-Decision)

Additional information:

• Our background check is done through CastleBranch. Click on the link and you will be directed to their website. Once on the site, click on Place Order  and enter RU35 as the package code.
• You may use other companies, but it must include the following checks:
  • Nationwide Healthcare Fraud and Abuse Scan
  • Nationwide Record Indicator with SOI
  • Social Security Alert
  • Residency History
• Please notify RWJMS that you are requesting a Background Check through our services by completing the Criminal Background Check Notification Form and sending it with your application.

NOTE: Once an elective is offered and accepted, there is a non-refundable $75.00 processing fee due for each elective you have accepted. Please make the check payable to "Rutgers RWJMS" and send it to the address listed for the Contact Person.  If payment is not received within 2 weeks from the date of acceptance, you will be withdrawn from the elective.

ALL DOCUMENTS MUST BE UPLOADED THROUGH VSLO AS WE WILL NOT BE ACCEPTING AND FORMS VIA MAIL OR FAX.

In addition to completing the tasks above, please note that RWJMS requires visiting students to have the following:

1. Passing USMLE Step 1 score or passing COMLEX-USA 1 score if you are an osteopathic medical school student.
2. Mask Fit Test.
3. BLS certification.
4. OSHA certification.
5. Medical liability/malpractice insurance.

Please note: Pre-Clinical and 3rd-year students are not eligible to apply for enrollment

• All forms must be received no later than eight weeks prior to the start of the rotation.

Acceptance into an elective is based upon receipt of the properly completed application forms. If you wish to apply for more than one elective, please use one application form per elective. You do not need to fill out duplicates of the other forms. Use RWJMS course numbers to identify the electives you choose.

The elective catalog is available here. You must follow our elective block rotation dates. In addition, no visiting student may accumulate more than 16 weeks of electives.

2022 – 2023 Elective Blocks

 ALL correspondence for Visiting Students is via EMAIL. No phone calls will be accepted unless returning a call from the Registrar's Office.

For more information on VSAS, please visit the  VSAS Home Page, contact VSAS at email address:  vsas@aamc.org, or via phone number: (202) 478-9878.

Attention: Foreign Medical School Students

VSLO is not currently available for international students or students enrolled at Canadian medical schools to use. For additional information, we refer you to our Global Health Office where they can inform you about our current opportunities. Please contact the office of Global Health at globalhealth@rwjms.rutgers.edu. The requests can be addressed to Dr. Angela Gitau or Ms. Christina Rozario.

Although we do not accept International Students for our established clerkships & electives, our Office of Global Health offers an "International Experiences" program to our MOU partners. These are typically a 4-week, structured rotation supervised by Global Health Faculty.