Medical Student Performance Evaluation Policy

Effective 8/4/2025

To whom this policy applies

All students, faculty, and staff of the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine

Purpose/Background

The MSPE is a summary letter of evaluation intended to provide residency program directors an honest and objective summary of a student’s salient experiences, attributes, and academic performance. It is a mandatory component of all residency applications.

Policy

All fourth-year medical students intending to apply for residency are required to meet with the Associate Dean of Student Affairs (ADSA) or another individual identified by the associate dean by a deadline determined by ADSA for the year in which they will apply, unless an exception is granted by the ADSA. Any student may make a request to meet with the alternative writer of the MSPE as identified by UNR Med.

Each student will be required to sign a FERPA waiver allowing UNR Med to release the document to the appropriate residency application service or other entity. All students will be given an opportunity to review their MSPE and will be provided a final copy of the document. The MSPE will be uploaded to the appropriate residency applicant service for release on the last Wednesday of September or alternate deadline put forth by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).

The MSPE is part of a student’s educational record. As such, any changes or additions made once an MSPE has been submitted will be made only as addenda to the original. Addenda will only be added if a student is (re)applying in a follow-up residency application cycle and should only include information that is new since the original submission. Addenda will also be added and transmitted to programs if UNR Med has knowledge that the MSPE, as written, is no longer accurate. No addenda will be added for the purposes of the Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Process (SOAP).

Content of the MSPE

The MSPE contains six sections: Identifying Information, Noteworthy Characteristics, Academic History, Academic Progress, Summary, and Medical School Information.

  • Identifying Information includes the student’s legal name, year in school, name and location of the medical school.
  • Noteworthy Characteristics includes information intended to help a residency program selection committee review applicants holistically to achieve a residency class that brings a varied set of background experiences, characteristics and perspectives together. At UNR Med, students will be allowed to provide a maximum of three characteristics.. Each characteristic is limited to two sentences or less, in consultation with their designated advisor and/ or the ADSA.
  • Academic History includes the following information:
    • The month and year of the student’s initial matriculation to and expected graduation from medical school.
    • An explanation of any extensions, leave(s) of absence, gap(s), or break(s) in the student’s educational program.
    • Information about the student’s prior, current, or expected enrollment in and the month and year of the student’s expected graduation from dual degree programs or completion of a scholarly concentration.
    • Information detailing formal remediation of any clinical skills course.
    • Information detailing remediation of any USMLE Step exam or NBME-subject exam.
    • Information detailing instances of academic probation or other adverse action(s) imposed on the student by UNR Med during the student’s medical education.
  • Academic Progress includes information about the student’s academic performance and professional attributes in preclinical/basic science coursework and core clinical and elective rotations.
    • Professionalism assessment will include a description of how UNR Med defines professionalism and how that is assessed. A separate statement will be included regarding the student’s attainment of professional standards detailing instances of exemplary professionalism, as well as lapses in professionalism that have resulted in academic probation or other actions determined by the UNR Med Student Promotion and Conduct Committee.
    • Narrative assessments from preclinical and clinical courses will be included and based upon summative faculty evaluations that are not edited for content. Minor editing for length, grammar, and spelling will be undertaken so long as it enhances the readability of the document without substantively affecting the objective assessment provided by the faculty.
    • Clinical Courses and Elective Rotations will be included in chronological order and include a breakdown of the components of each clerkship grade and the weight of each component (for example, % clinical assessment, % shelf exam, % case write- up, % OSCE, etc.). Graphic representations of students’ comparative performance will also be shown.
  • A summary statement will be included that assigns an evaluative level of distinguished, outstanding, excellent, very good or good to each student based on a rubric. This rubric includes assessment of pre-clerkship and clerkship performance, USMLE performance and scores, and, as available, leadership, service, teaching, research and contributions made with a dual- degree or scholarly concentration. The MSPE rubric is presented to each class annually and adjustments to the rubric may be made at any time at the discretion of the ADSA. The MSPE rubric is for internal use only and not submitted with the MSPE to the appropriate residency application service.

Review and appeal of your MSPE

All students will be given an opportunity to review their MSPE prior to submission and will be provided a final copy of the document. Should a student disagree with any part of the MSPE, the following process will be followed.

  1. Appealing the Evaluative Comments - Any changes to your evaluative comments must be requested to your course or clerkship directors in accordance with the Grade Appeal Policy.
  2. To appeal your MSPE Evaluative Level or language, a request must be submitted to the ADSA via email with an evidence-based rationale based on the MSPE rubric.
  3. If an agreement cannot be made, your appeal will be forwarded to the Senior Associate Dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs for a final decision with no further options for appeal.

Reviewed

Approved by Medical Education Steering Committee, 7/24/2025