Medical Student Services is the student affairs office for the medical school. We support the academic mission with a focus on student wellness, personal growth and professional development. We weave a support system through learning communities, individual career advising, academic tutoring, and service learning.

MSS On-Call

An MSS dean or director is always on call. You can reach MSS On-Call anytime by calling UAB Paging 205-934-3411 and asking to page the MSS Director on Call. 

ReportIt

• • ReportIt is an online system students can use to report concerns or commendations about anything related to medical school faculty, students, staff, or facilities. 
  • Certain deans receive the reports, depending on the type of concern or commendation submitted. 
  • Students have the option to submit a report anonymously, but we encourage you to include a name and email address (these an can be pseudonymous or non-identifying), so a dean can ask any needed follow up questions to act on your report in a meaningful way and provide updates on your report. 

The Academic Success Program maximizes students’ personal and professional development by providing individualized advising and supportive programming. We do this by facilitating the academic and career success of all medical students in a collaborative and inclusive environment.

Services:

Learning Success

• • Study skills, Study groups, Learning strategies and Test taking strategies
    • Step 1 and Step 2 CK preparation

Residency Application Success

• • CV guidance & review
  • Personal statement guidance & review
  • Career advisor referral

Personal & Professional Support

• • Referrals to Professional Development Office
  • Planned stress relief activities
  • Liaison to Disability Support Services: 
    • Accommodations must be requested through the UAB Disability Support Office. If you have any questions about disability-related accommodations in medical school, you can contact Disability Support Services directly, or Brook Hubner, the School of Medicine's DSS liaison.
    • All information is confidential, and your diagnosis/disability does not need to be disclosed in order to consult on the process to receive accommodations.

Peer Tutoring

The peer tutoring program serves a dual mission: providing free, supplemental support to medical students who need additional help with coursework; and supporting medical students tutors who wish to extend and reinforce their knowledge and develop instructional skills while helping their peers. Peer tutors do not tutor students in their same class.

• Individual tutoring is arranged through academic advising. If you feel you would benefit from individual tutoring, stop by the academic success office or email your academic advisor.
• Group tutoring occurs throughout Fundamentals and organ system modules. Session typically cover content identified by faculty and students as particularly challenging. Tutors also offer sessions that provide students practice deconstructing question stems, anatomy practical practice among other topics.

Programming:

The academic success office conducts seminars and workshops on highly relevant topics aligned with the medical school year as well as offers learning strategy seminars for the Summer Health Professions Education Program (SHPEP).

Our Team: 

Brook A. Hubner, PhD, Director

Fahmida Bratina, MA, Academic and Career Success Advisor

Caleb Rotton, MEd, Academic and Career Success Advisor

Rachel Daniel, MA, Academic and Career Success Advisor

Contact LaShaundria Thomas (VH 107H), or schedule an appointment online

Learn more about Financial Aid and Scholarships

Check Balance/Pay Tuition

Apply for Institutional Scholarships:

• Current Student
• Accepted Applicant

Student Organizations

• See the full list student organizations and leadership. Note: Student groups are responsible for maintaining their own lists of officers. 
• If you have questions about an existing student organization or wish to start a new one, please contact Kaitlin Higginbotham.
• For guidelines regarding student involvement in extracurricular activities, visit the Policies & Procedures page.

Student Senate

• Visit the Student Senate website to connect with the Senate online.
• To find guidelines regarding student involvement in extracurricular activities, visit the Policies & Procedures page.

Service Opportunities

• Limited and long-term service learning opportunities are available through the Office of Service Learning.
• If you're interested in finding our more about the Health Equity Scholars Program, email Caroline Harada, MD, Assistant Dean for Community Engaged Scholarship.

Housing

•  Visit the Housing page for listings and contacts. 

Best Medicine Show

• Visit the Best Medicine Show website for the most up-to-date show details.

Other Helpful Links

• Honor Council: Review the UABSOM Honor Code or report a potential violation. 
• Ordering Scrubs: Scrubs can be ordered directly from UAB Hospital. To order, visit https://www.suitestyles.com/ and use username uab and password scrubs1. Click on med students, make your selections and proceed to checkout.

UAB Police

UAB’s accredited police force of more than 70 sworn officers, including a special Student Housing Police Precinct, patrols our campus 24 hours a day and makes routine sweeps through residence halls and parking areas.

UAB Police also offer various awareness, defense, and safety programs for students.

Contact: 205-934-3535 (emergency), 205-934-4434 (non-emergency)

Transit

Blazer Express, UAB's campus bus service, offers free transportation for students, employees, and authorized visitors along six routes - some of which run as late as midnight. Just show your One Card to ride. Late night, on-demand van service is also available daily from 9 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. through Blazer Express.

Contact: 205-934-8772

Rave Guardian

Rave Guardian is a free, personal safety app and service available to UAB students, faculty, and staff. Users sign up with their UAB email address and app allows users to designate “guardians” — who can be family, friends or even the UAB Police Department — to provide a virtual safety escort. The user sets a timer and designates a guardian; if the user does not deactivate the timer before it expires, an alert is sent to the guardian with the user’s location.

The app also allows for direct emergency access to UABPD — essentially serving as a personal panic button through which police can identify the user’s location.

Learn more about Rave Guardian from UAB Emergency Management and download Rave Guardian from Google Play or the App Store.

Help Phones

Hundreds of Help Phones are strategically located around campus, both inside and outside buildings, in parking garages, and along sidewalks. Look for the blue light and the word “HELP.” A press of a button puts you directly in touch with UAB police, who monitor the system 24 hours a day.

Emergency Alerts

For immediate notification of emergencies (severe weather, crime, etc.), all students should sign up with UAB's B-ALERT system, which is used to communicate to the entire campus at the same time. You can choose which method of communication suits you best—voice call, SMS text message, or e-mail—or use any combination of the three.

During such events, uab.edu/emergency is the official source of UAB information from class cancellations to rescheduling of building hours to safety procedures.

Restricted Access

Volker Hall has carded entry systems, allowing entry only to those with approved access. In the wake of COVID-19, ONE Card access is required 24 hours a day. The 4^th and 5^th floors of Volker are accessible only with ONE Card access 24 hours a day.

Clery Report

The UAB Annual Security and Fire Safety Report is available online. To access it, you can go to the UAB Police Department website and click on “Annual Security and Fire Safety Clery Report,” or go directly to the report.

For a print copy of the report, call (205) 934-4649. The report follows the guidelines mandated by the Federal Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act and contains the following information: reporting incidents; federal campus sex crimes prevention act; missing person procedures; distribution of timely warnings; emergency preparedness, response and evacuation procedures; criminal statistics; fire safety report, etc.

Huntsville Regional Medical Campus Fire and Safety Report

Montgomery Regional Medical Campus Fire and Safety Report

Report It

ReportIt is an online system medical students can use to report concerns or commendations about anything related to medical school faculty, students, staff, or facilities. 

Certain deans within the School of Medicine receive the reports, depending on the type of concern or commendation submitted. 

Students have the option to submit a report anonymously, but we encourage you to include a name and email address (these an can be pseudonymous or non-identifying), so a dean can ask any needed follow up questions to act on your report in a meaningful way and provide updates on your report.  

Current plan is for an in-person ceremony.

Date: Saturday, May 22, 2021
Location: Bartow Arena
Start time: 1 p.m., ceremony will last approximately 2 hours
Student arrival: Students arrive by 12:30 p.m. to line up
COVID-related precautions:

• Distancing will be enforced.
• Masks required.*  *Subject to changes in state, county, city, and UAB ordinances or policies. 

Live Stream: The ceremony will be streamed live online at https://go.uab.edu/SOMCommencement

Parking: No reserved parking for the ceremony

Guests with disabilities/mobility issues:

• If you have guests who need ADA parking, you can make a request online
• Each student can request only one space
• Deadline for requests is 5 p.m., May 3, 2021 (we are unable to extend the deadline)
• No guarantees we can accommodate all requests

Ordering Regalia: The link to order regalia will be posted here. You will pay for regalia when you pick it up. Students who complete the AAMC Graduation Questionnaire will receive a $40 credit toward regalia rental

Ordering Announcements and/or Diploma Frames: If you're interested in ordering announcements, contact Barnes & Noble at the Hill Center.

Suppressed Information: If your information is listed as "Suppressed" in the SOM database, we cannot call your name nor print it in Match or Commencement documents.

• To release your information, visit the Update Your Personal Information page on the School of Medicine website. 
• Information must be released by 5 p.m. on Friday, May 1, 2021.

Name Changes:

• The name called at Commencement will be the name listed in the UABSOM system
• If you want/need to change this, there are instructions for doing on the Registrar & Records page
• Don’t wait to start this process as there are legal documents you have to gather in order to make the change
• Diplomas will be ordered April 15, so name changes must be complete by this date in order for name change to be reflected on your diploma

For all other questions about Commencement, contact Kaitlin Higginbotham or Jason Noah.

Ceremony details

Date: Friday, March 19, 2021
Location: Zoom
Start time: 10:45 a.m.

Live Stream: Ceremony will be livestreamed online at www.uab.edu/matchday. 

Suppressed Information

• If your information is listed as "Suppressed" in the SOM database, we cannot call your name nor print it in Match-related results. 
• To release your information, visit the Update Your Personal Information page on the School of Medicine website. 
• Information must be released by 5 p.m. on Friday, March 5.