CYTOGENETICS EDUCATIONAL PRACTICUM ASSIGNMENT POLICY

Assignments to affiliates for the practicum courses is made as fairly as possible based on availability of positions at the affiliate site and student needs.  Practicum courses normally begin in the spring semester and are completed during the summer semester.  Primary site assignment is made to provide the student with a breadth of experiences that encompasses all major content areas.  Since many of the practicum sites are in distant cities and student relocation may incur considerable student expense, every effort is made to place students in a single city for their entire practicum experience.

During the fall semester students must submit in writing to the Program Director their first, second and third city of preference for practicum assignment.  If there are sufficient available sites, each student is assigned to one or more laboratories in their first choice city.  If there are more first choice requests for a particular city than are available practicum positions in that city, the Program Director will ask each student who requested the city as their first choice to write a short essay.  The essay will describe the reasons for requesting assignment in the city and is limited to one page.  The Program Director will take the request and essays to the Committee on Allied Health Studies in Clinical Laboratory Sciences.  The Committee will prioritize the request based on essay content and student GPA.

Assignments are made according to prioritization until all sites in the city are filled.  Students receiving low priority will be offered the opportunity of an alternate site but immediate assignment in the city of their second or third preference.  If a student declines this second or third city preference assignment, they may choose to defer their clinical practice until assignment can be made to their original first choice site the following summer semester and complete their practicum during the following fall semester.