School of Medicine Transfer of Credit Policy

Doctor in Medicine Program

For the medical education (M.D.) program, PHSU accepts transfer students for the second pre-clerkship (MS2) or first clerkship (MS3) year only from LCME-accredited schools. The following requirements also apply:

• Transfer applicants must have a minimum undergraduate overall GPA of 2.70, and the student must have taken the MCAT.
• Candidates for transfer into the third year must have passed USMLE Step 1 on the first attempt.

Additionally, PHSU will not consider for admission any of the following:

• Applicants for the fourth year of medical studies.
• Applicants with a medical doctor (MD) degree.
• Applicants who have been dismissed due to academic or disciplinary reasons.
• Transfers from osteopathic, veterinary, dental, or international medical schools (effective Spring 2022)

Biomedical Sciences Program

Students who apply for admission to the Biomedical Sciences Program may transfer up to 21 credits related to the field of basic sciences. To be considered for transfer, the credits must have been obtained from a fully accredited higher education institution from Puerto Rico or the USA.

The following additional requirements must be met to consider the requests for transferring credits of graduate courses to the PHSU Biomedical Sciences Program:

• The requested courses were approved with at least a B grade.
• The student can demonstrate through formal written and/or oral examination that they possess the scientific knowledge, skills, and values expected from the courses.

The following courses are frequently equivalent within the Basic Sciences field and may be transferred from outside graduate programs:
1. Biochemistry
2. Microbiology
3. Physiology
4. Pharmacology
5. Histology/Cell Biology
6. Biostatistics
7. Neurosciences

Additional requests for transfer of credits from other graduate science courses may be considered on an individual basis.

Master of Science in Medical Sciences

Purpose:
Some students of the Master of Science in Medical Science (MSMS) complete all graduation requirements but are unable to fulfill the minimum 3.0 GPA required for graduation. This is the result of a high credit load of several of the MSMS courses, and a “C” in a major course may result in non-compliance with the required GPA. These students must repeat courses to obtain higher grades so that their GPA increases to the required levels. However, some of them are accepted to continue postgraduate higher education training, such as medical education, and are unable to repeat courses in our institution.
The purpose of this policy is to establish a mechanism so that these students complete their MSMS degree while enrolled in another post-graduate higher education program.

Policy
MSMS students who comply with all graduation requirements, except the minimum 3.0 GPA and are accepted in a medical education program or another doctoral program the next academic year after initiation of the MSMS program may be eligible to get credit towards the MSMS degree from courses taken at another higher education institution.
The procedure to achieve this is the following:

• The student must submit the MSMS Transfer of Credits Request Form to the Registrar’s Office by the end of the first year of medical education or doctoral training.
• The student must be enrolled in an LCME-accredited medical school, a foreign medical school that has been appropriately accredited according to ECFMG¹ standards, or a doctoral program in an institution of Higher education with regional accreditation (such as the Middle States Commission on Higher Education).
• After the student completes the course/s for which transfer credit is requested, the student must request that an official transcript be sent to Ponce Health Science University Registrar’s Office.
• The Associate Dean for Medical Education and the Assistant Dean for MSMS Program will evaluate the courses and grades in the transcript. A special analysis needs to be done for those students in medical schools where they have an “integrated” or “system-based” curriculum.
• Only courses with A’s and B’s may be cross transferred to substitute former courses with a C. If the GPA increases at or above 3.0 of, the student will be certified as eligible for the MSMS degree.
• The Student Promotion Committee will evaluate the results and confirm to the Registrar if the student is a candidate for graduation.
• Students admitted to the MSMS prior to the creation of this policy are eligible and will be notified about this policy.
• The PHSU Registrar may establish an administrative fee for the time and effort this entails.
• The policy is effective May 5, 2016, and will be in effect for two years, after which it will be revised by the Executive and Policy Committee.