Visiting Students

The University of Virginia’s Orthopaedic Surgery Residency Program welcomes visiting medical students to rotate with us through our Student Externship Program.  Rotations are available each summer and fall for qualified 4th year medical students from LCME-accredited medical schools.

To apply, interested students should submit the following via VSAS:

• name
• medical school
• letter of recommendation (1)
• requested dates of rotation

We are unable to deviate from the listed rotation dates. The rotation request will be reviewed by our Medical Student Selection Committee consisting of faculty and residents.  Students approved by this Committee will be tentatively offered to schedule a rotation with U.Va. Orthopaedics.  Requests will be reviewed and rotations will be scheduled in the order in which they are received.  More information about rotations at UVA may be found here.

The University of Virginia Medical School transitioned in 2009 to the AAMC’s Visiting Student Application Service (VSAS) for all student externships. This is part of AAMC VSOL (Visiting Student Learning Opportunities). Please see the Student Affairs website for instructions on the VSAS process. The Medical Student Selection Committee will review the applications and tentatively make offers via VSAS.  UVA Medical Student Affairs office will then release the offer to the medical student only when all forms including all health and insurance forms have been uploaded to VSAS. 

Applications through VSLO are accepted starting mid-March 2024.

Rotating students should refer to the UVA Student Handbook For Orthopaedic Surgery 2023 for more detailed information about their rotation.

Contingent upon recommendations from the Coalition for Physician Accountability, the School of Medicine will begin accepting applications via VSOL (formerly VSAS) starting April 2024 for visiting MS4 student rotations in the following date blocks:

Block 1: 7/8/24 – 8/2/24

Block 2: 8/5/24 – 8/30/24

Block 3: 9/2/24 – 9/27/24

Block 4: 9/30/24 – 10/25/24

In addition, UVA Orthopaedic Surgery offers Underrepresented in Medicine Visiting Medical Student Scholarships. For more information, please visit this page.