Admissions Committee By-Laws

Approved by DGSOM FEC April 1, 2020

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ARTICLE 1: GENERAL

 

Section 1: Name

The committee shall be known as the Admissions Committee. References to the Committee in this document refer to the Admissions Committee.

 

Section 2: Purpose and Function

The mission of the medical education program of the David Geffen School of Medicine (DGSOM) at UCLA is to prepare graduates for distinguished careers in clinical practice, teaching, research, and public service. Recognizing that medical school is but one phase in a physician's education, students prepare for a future in which scientific knowledge, societal values, and human needs are ever changing. To meet this challenge, our students will need the skills to provide quality care for their patients, to contribute to the growth of scientific knowledge, and to continue learning throughout their careers. Students are expected to demonstrate service to the community and demonstrate a firm commitment to the humanistic, ethical, legal and cultural aspects of medicine and recognize the importance of scientific inquiry.

We believe that a diverse student body is an integral part of medical education and is essential to the development of patient-centered care.  We are deeply committed to increasing the diversity of the workforce in all tenets of healthcare, including education, research, community engagement, and clinical care. The Committee believes that the core values of diversity and inclusion are inseparable from our institutional goals. The Committee strives to achieve this diversity using these core principles of holistic review:

 

Broad based selection criteria linked to the DGSOM mission statement

• A balanced view of an applicant’s experiences, attributes and metrics
• Individualized consideration of how each applicant can contribute to the DGSOM learning environment and practice of medicine.
• Individualized consideration of how each applicant can contribute to the DGSOM learning environment and practice of medicine

 

The Committee is responsible for providing holistic review based on information integrated throughout the admissions process, including written materials provided by the candidate and assessments based on review of the written application and interviews. Furthermore, the Committee is empowered by the DGSOM Faculty Executive Committee (FEC) and is thereby responsible for admitting a complete class for the DGSOM at UCLA (herein referred to as Regular MD Program), UCLA-Caltech Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP), UCLA PRIME-LA and the UCLA-Charles R. Drew Medical Education Program (CDU-MEP). Subcommittees for MSTP, PRIME-LA, and CDU-MEP will review the candidates for these programs, and make recommendations for candidates for acceptance to the Committee.

 

Section 3: Source of Authority

The Admissions Committee is a standing committee of the FEC of the DGSOM at UCLA.  The FEC of the DGSOM is a subcommittee of the UCLA Academic Senate and is subject to the bylaws of the UCLA Academic Senate. The Admissions Committee Chairs are responsible, empowered, and have the final authority to make offers of admission to the MD programs on behalf of the DGSOM FEC, based on the proceedings of the Committee.

 

 

ARTICLE 2: MEMBERS

 

Section 1: Membership – Admissions Committee

The Admissions Committee is composed of 3 officers and 27 additional members with advisory votes, including 22 voting faculty members and 5 medical students. All officers and members will be appointed by the FEC with input from the chairs and vice-chairs of the Committee, the Dean of DGSOM, the Dean of Admissions, and the Vice Dean of Education. Two faculty members serve as Co-Chairs of the Committee and a third faculty member as Vice-Chair and are voting members.

 

Voting membership will consist of:

a.Two faculty members serving as co-chairs, who must be members of the Academic Senate and who are at the level of Associate Professor or above.

b. One faculty member serving as vice-chair, from any series at the level of Associate Professor or above.

c. Three faculty members, serving as the chair of the subcommittees reviewing and making recommendations to the Committee on for the following programs: (1) UCLA Caltech-MSTP Program (2) UCLA PRIME-LA Program, and (3) UCLA-Charles R. Drew Medical Education Program

d. Three to five Faculty members who have primary appointments in the Pre-Clinical Sciences (Biological Chemistry, Computational Medicine, Human Genetics, Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics (MIMG), Neurobiology, Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, Physiology).

e. Six to ten Faculty members who have primary appointments in the Medical Sciences (Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine, Medicine, Neurology, Pediatrics, Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences)

f. Six to ten Faculty members who have primary appointments in the Surgical Clinical Sciences (Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Head & Neck Surgery, Neurosurgery, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Ophthalmology, Orthopaedic Surgery, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Radiation Oncology, Radiological Sciences, Surgery, Urology).

Non-voting membership will consist of

a. Dean of Admissions

 a. Qualifications for Members

Membership shall be diverse with faculty representation from the basic sciences, research, and primary and specialty care faculty, with representation from all of the academic series including regular, in-residence, adjunct, clinical-X and health sciences series and with representation of the affiliated sites.  Faculty members should be active in medical education and have demonstrated leadership. The majority of the members of the Committee must be members of the Academic Senate.

The medical student members of the Admissions Committee shall be in good academic standing, and will have successfully completed at least the first year coursework of medical school. Prior experience with the process of admission to the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA is desirable.

 

b. Term of Service

Members of the Committee may serve up to two consecutive three-year terms.  Members can be invited to return after a one- year absence for up to 1 additional three-year term. Beginning with revision of bylaws in 2020, members will have staggered terms of 3, 4, 5, and 6 years, in consultation with the FEC and Admission committee officers, in order that there not be excessive turn-over.  Medical student members will serve a one-year term. Members are required to commit to participate in at least 75% of the scheduled committee meetings to return for the next year’s admission cycle. Failure to do so may lead to Chairs of the Committee to recommend non-renewal and replacement by FEC.  

 c. Officers

The Admissions Committee will have 2 equal co-chairs and a vice-chair. The chairs and vice-chairs will be selected, nominated, and confirmed by majority vote of the FEC based on prior experience and input from the Dean, Dean of Admissions, and Vice-Dean of Education. The Vice Chair serves as chair if the Chairs are unavailable or unable to perform his/her duties as chair. The officers will have terms of 4 years and may serve up to two consecutive terms.  Chairs will be appointed or reappointed by FEC vote every 2 years, in order to stagger chair terms. Service as a member of the Committee does not count towards limit of service as an Officer of the Admissions Committee. The Director of Admissions or his/her designate will provide administrative assistance for the Committee.

 

d. Meetings

The Admissions Committee will meet regularly to provide expeditious review and offers of admission to DGSOM applicants. Admissions Committee Members shall be notified at least one week in advance of the prescribed meeting date. A quorum is defined as the majority of voting faculty members. Applicant files to be reviewed at each meeting will be selected and identified in consultation between the chairs, vice-chair, and Dean of Admission and will be made available for online review, preferably at least 7 days prior to the prescribed meeting date.

The Committee Chairs, with input as necessary from the Dean of Admissions, may call additional meetings as needed and determine the meeting place and time.

 

 

ARTICLE 3: COMMITTEE DUTIES

Section 1: Scope of Activity

The Admissions Committee has ultimate authority for the following processes:

• Holistic review of applicants, including written material provided by the applicant and interview and application assessments
• Ranking applicants
• Extending offers of admission to the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, including all of its tracks (Regular MD Program, UCLA-Caltech MSTP, UCLA PRIME-LA and the UCLA-Charles R. Drew Medical Education Program)
• Making offers of admission to applicants from the waitlist based on rank order

 

The Admissions Committee process conforms to AAMC guidelines and AAMC Application and Acceptance Protocols for Admissions Officers (see Appendix 2 attached).

 

Section 2: Procedures for Admissions

 a. Application

All applications for admission to the Regular MD Program, UCLA-Caltech MSTP, UCLA PRIME-LA and Charles R. Drew Medical Education Program are initially processed through the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS) that supplies a standard application form to all US medical schools listed by the applicant. DGSOM (Regular MD Program, UCLA-Caltech MSTP, UCLA PRIME-LA, and CDU-MEP) accepts applications in the timeline detailed in the DGSOM Admissions Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). The FEC each year establishes, reviews, and approves a framework for consideration of applications for admission to DGSOM, as detailed in the SOP, for each program. This framework emphasizes holistic review at each stage of admissions, including request for supplemental applications, reading of applications, invitation for interview, the interview process, subcommittee and AC review, offers of admission, and creation of the rank-ordered waitlist.

 b. Supplemental Application

The SOP includes criteria for consideration of supplemental applications for each program. A supplemental application to DGSOM at UCLA includes a fee [approved by the University of California Office of the President], letters of recommendation, and other essays or candidate information as established annually by the Admissions Committee.

c. Reading and Invitation to Interview

After receipt and processing of the secondary (supplemental) application for DGSOM, the application (AMCAS application and secondary application) undergoes holistic review according to criteria outlined in the SOP, with distinct criteria and considerations for each program, in order to identify candidates for interview. The SOP details domains for assessment, as reviewed and approved by the FEC each year. It is not necessary for all applicants selected for interview to have every characteristic noted in the SOP. However, in general, for an applicant to be invited for an interview, the reading process should be able to articulate the attributes that have led to that applicant’s invitation to interview.

d. Interview

All applicants to all programs will undergo at live interviews, as detailed and maintained in the UCLA Admissions Standard Operating Procedure. The goal of interviewing applicants is (1) to evaluate their skills in interacting with people and abilities to communicate, (2) to assist the holistic review by facilitating a more in depth understanding of their role in the various activities they have listed, (3) allow the applicant and the interviewer the opportunity to have an interactive discussion regarding any questions arising from the application.

e. Subcommittee Review

Following completion of the interview process, for the UCLA-Caltech MSTP Program, PRIME-LA, and CDU-MEP, the complete files of interviewed applicants are distributed to the members of the respective subcommittees for discussion. These files include: the AMCAS application, program specific secondary application, letters of recommendation, interview assessments, and any other relevant parts of the application.

 

Section 3: Admissions Committee Review

Following interviews, all complete applicant files are submitted to the Admissions Committee for final review. These files include the AMCAS application, program specific supplemental applications, letters of recommendation, interview assessments, and any other relevant parts of the application. Admissions Committee members will receive the files for online review at least 1-week in advance of the scheduled meeting date.

 

The Officers of the Committee will establish an explicit methodology to rank all applicants based on a holistic integration of all data available for each applicant, integrating the advisory vote of the committee on each applicant that is reviewed. After review and vote on each application, the data and resulting rank is used to determine offers of admissions and rank-ordered wait list. All applicants not immediately offered admission will be placed on a rank-ordered waitlist, based on the methodology established by the Committee Chairs. Further admission off of the waitlist is based on rank order.  

 

Admissions decisions will not be influenced by political or financial factors.

 

Section 4: Applicant Notification of Committee Decisions

Applicants are to be notified of all Committee decisions in a timely manner, as detailed in the SOP and as governed by a published set of AAMC recommendations. The Application and Acceptance Protocols for Admissions Officers (see Appendix attached) ensure that MD and MD-PhD applicants are afforded timely notification of the outcome of their applications and timely access to available first-year positions. Admissions and wait list decisions will be communicated in person, by telephone, electronic mail or written letter, as detailed in the SOP.

Recruitment of admitted candidates will be done according to details outlined in the SOP.

Applicants who (1) do not meet criteria for secondary applications (2) are not selected for interview based on review of supplementary applications and (3) interview but are not offered admission or a wait list position will be notified in a timely manner and in a manner consistent with that detailed in the SOP. 

 

 

ARTICLE 4: CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Purpose: Preservation of the integrity of the admissions process is of paramount importance.

 

Section 1: Definition

A conflict of interest may exist when a pre-existing or current association with the applicant, the applicant’s family members, or others to include colleagues may influence a decision regarding an applicant.

 

Section 2: Confidentiality Agreement

All participants in the admissions process will be asked to agree to and sign an annual confidentiality agreement. The signed confidentiality agreement will be requested with the initiation of participation in the admissions process.

 

Section 3: Actions for Conflict of Interest

All participants in the Admissions process are expected to disclose any perceived or actual conflicts of interest to the Dean for Admissions and the Chairs of the Committee. Following disclosure, the Dean for Admissions and Chairs of the Committee may request the following actions, or combinations of actions: (1) Recusal from all admissions related processes; (2) Recusal from interviewing the applicant; (3) Recusal from Subcommittee and/or Committee discussion and voting; (4) Recusal from Subcommittee and/or Committee voting.

 

Section 4: Independence of Admissions Committee

Admissions committee function and decisions will not be influenced by political or financial factors from University administration or elsewhere.

 

 

ARTICLE 5: AMENDING THE BYLAWS

An annual review of the bylaws is recommended to perform any updates that may be deemed necessary due to changes in the admissions process. Bylaw changes may arise from internal review or external factors (i.e., changes to the AAMC Application and Acceptance Protocols for Admissions Officers, or Application and Acceptance Protocols for Applicants).

 

Section 1: Bylaw Amendment Proposal

The Officers of the Admissions Committee, any Admissions Committee member, or any DGSOM FEC member may submit a formal proposal for bylaw amendment. The Dean of Admissions, Vice-Dean of Education, and Dean of the DGSOM may suggest considerations for amendment of bylaws to FEC.

 

Section 2: Amendment Process

Following discussions of the proposal the Admissions Committee may opt to amend, or not to amend the bylaws. A majority vote will be required to proceed with amendment. In the event of a tie vote, the Chair of the DGSOM FEC will cast the deciding vote.

 

Section 3: Final Approval

A vote to amend the bylaws by the Admissions Committee requires approval by the DGSOM FEC for final approval.

 

 

ARTICLE 6: REPORTING

The Committee will report twice a year to the FEC, including (1) the proposed plan and process for timely and holistic review of applicants for each admission cycle and (2) an annual report on Admissions outcomes and processes. 

           

 

Appendix 3

 

LCME CONSENSUS STATEMENT ON

SATISFACTORY PERFORMANCE IN ELEMENT 10.2:

ACCEPTANCE FROM THE WAITLIST/ALTERNATE LIST

[Approved by the LCME^® on October 19, 2016]

 

The key expectations in satisfying the requirements of Element 10.2 (final authority of the admission committee) are the following: 1) the admission committee maintains final responsibility for accepting medical students; 2) there is formal documentation establishing the committee’s structure, function, and authority; 3) faculty members constitute the majority of voting members; and 4) the selection of students for admission is not influenced by political or financial factors.

The following summarizes methods for managing acceptance from the waitlist/alternate list that medical schools may use which conform to the requirements of Element 10.2.

• The waitlist/alternate list is created by the Admission Committee according to school policy and procedure. The Admission Committee formally approves all applicants for the waitlist/alternate list as acceptable for admission.
• Ranking of individuals on the waitlist/alternate list is not required by the LCME:

• If the waitlist/alternate list is ranked:
  This ranking is performed by the Admissions Committee. An individual can be admitted from a ranked waitlist/alternate list by one or a combination of the Admission Committee chair/associate dean for admissions/subgroup of the Admission Committee only based on his/her rank order number.  The individual or subgroup has been formally delegated this authority by the Admission Committee.  A vote by the Admission Committee on the individuals accepted from a ranked waitlist/alternate list is not required.
• If the waitlist/alternate list is not ranked:

Individuals can be moved from the waitlist/alternate list to the accepted list based on criteria previously approved by the Admission Committee (e.g., to create balance in a class to support one or more of the missions of the school).  The acceptance of applicants from the waitlist/alternate list could be done in a number of ways, for example:

• By a vote of the full Admission Committee in person,
• By an email ballot of the full Admission Committee, or
• By a subgroup of the Admission Committee with formal delegated authority from the Admission Committee.

• When a final class is assembled, in any of the above cases the Admission Committee should receive a report, including how many waitlist/alternate list individuals were admitted and on what general bases the admission decisions were made (e.g., rank order, contribution to school missions).

	Responsible Committee/individuals:			Comments:
	APOC	Admissions Committee	Admissions Dean and Admissions Office
MANDATES:
Committee Reports to	FEC	FEC	VD-Education
OBJECTIVES
A.    Development of: 1.     Criteria for the screening of each submitted application and the selection of candidates for interview. 2.     A holistic, confidential selection process that adheres to UC policies, relevant statutes and national guidelines	X-Advisory			To be reviewed by FEC by March 1 of each year (a later date will be needed for 2018-19)
B.    Development of: Detailed procedures for screening, interviewing, and selecting students that adhere to the criteria and general processes defined above.			X—Responsible (*oversight Don Saleh 18-19)
C.    Implementation of Admission standards & Protocols		X-R	X-R	APOC will make policy recommendations to the FEC
D.    Screening and interviewing applicants, ranking them, and making decisions regarding admission to DGSOM.		X--Responsible
E.    Oversight, Evaluation & Monitoring of: Admissions Standards, Policies and outcomes including scholarships awarded.	X—(Advisory to FEC; FEC responsible)		X—Responsible (*in collaboration with Don Saleh 18-19)	Written reports  on progress, metrics, etc. provided every other week from July 1 through June 1 (using template approved by FEC by July 1)
F.    Applicant Outreach (including pipeline programs)			X--R
G.    Recruitment of Accepted Applicants		X--R	X--R
H.    Offers a complete class for the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA (DGSOM), UCLA-Caltech MSTP, UCLA PRIME and the UCLA-Charles R. Drew Medical Education Program (CDU-MEP)		X-R
I.      Monitors outcomes of medical school admissions & Matriculation	X	X	X	Review metrics for graduates of the DGSOM