Purpose
The Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE) is a summary document provided by Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine to residency program directors with honest and objective information about each student’s academic performance based, to the greatest degree possible, on verifiable information and summative evaluations in medical school. The MSPE is a summary letter of evaluation, not a letter of recommendation, and it is a required document in the residency application process.
Components
Identifying Information
- Student’s legal name and year in school
- Name and location of the medical school
Noteworthy Characteristics
This section 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. Students develop their own noteworthy characteristics; Student Affairs provides feedback before they are finalized.
Academic History
This section provides information about dates of matriculation, expected date of graduation, any leaves, gaps, or breaks in the education program with explanation, whether a student was required to repeat or remediate any course work, and whether the student was the recipient of any adverse actions which includes academic probation and dismissal.
Academic Progress
This section includes information about the student’s professional attributes and assessment, academic performance in the preclinical curriculum and the Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LIC) in Year 3. Year 4 courses taken in the June and July block are also included. Narrative comments for Year 3 and Year 4, where applicable, are also included.
Summary
This section provides final comments about the student. The college does not rank our students so no inference of comparison with peers is provided.
Medical School Information
This last section provides institution-specific information and is templated information.
The information below lists of the individuals and their role in preparing the Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE):
- Medical Student: Identify and develop their Noteworthy Characteristics.
- Associate Dean for Assessment, Evaluation, and Curriculum Management: Provides assessment data and narrative comments for the Academic History and Progress sections; signatory.
- Vice Dean for Admissions, Student Affairs, and Alumni Engagement: Oversees the process for compiling the MSPE and uploading final document to residency application services, assists in the Academic History sections, collaborates with the student to develop the Noteworthy Characteristics; signatory.
- Assessment Team: some members of the team are involved in data entry
- Regional Deans: Draft the summary paragraphs for their cohorts. May review the MSPE draft with their students (optional—as requested by the student); signatory.
- Additional faculty: students may request an alternate faculty member to write their summary paragraph; this faculty must not have assessed them in the curriculum.
The MSPE is compiled from May–August of the students’ fourth year. The MSPE is sent to the student to review via a secure link in email. Their regional dean is copied, and students may elect to review with them if they would like, though it’s not required. The student reviews their MSPE twice before finalizing and uploading to the residency application services. During these reviews, they may request corrections of misspellings or grammatical errors and challenge factual errors which are sent to the associate dean for assessment, evaluation, and curriculum management for review.
The review process occurs as follows:
- August: The initial draft is sent to the student via secure link with the regional dean copied. This version often does not include the summer Year 4 courses nor summary paragraph. The student can make edits to their Noteworthy Characteristics, request changes to grammar and spelling, and challenge factual errors. Students complete a survey providing any requested changes/updates.
- September: The final draft is sent to students showing any changes made from their requests and new information. This version will include any missing information from the initial draft. Students complete a survey that allows them to request any final changes and provides a release to upload the document to residency application processes.