USF Morsani College of Medicine — Dismissal & Appeals

Written by Zachary Gaynor, attorney · The Florida Bar, admitted 2016 · court admissions. Reviewed 3 September 2026.

Who decides whether a USF medical student is dismissed?

The Academic Performance Review Committee (APRC) decides dismissal at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, for academic and non-academic reasons alike. The appeal goes to the MCOM dean, who may convene an ad hoc advisory committee but is not required to, and who makes the final decision. You have five business days from receipt of the letter.

The most dangerous sentence in the handbook

“If the student fails to sign the letter within five (5) business days, the APRC will interpret this non-action as the student accepting the APRC’s action.”

Silence is treated as acceptance. The letter typically arrives by DocuSign, which means it can sit unopened in a spam folder while the window closes. Of every provision across Florida’s medical schools, this is the one that most often ends a case before anyone has looked at its merits. If you take one thing from this page: open the letter, and respond in writing inside five business days even if you have not yet decided what to argue.

The other clocks

  • APRC adverse action or dismissal: five business days from receipt.
  • The APRC notifies the student in writing within five business days; the chair forwards to the dean no more than five business days after the determination.
  • Involuntary health-related leave of absence: three days from the date of the notice — and the handbook does not say whether those are business or calendar days. The vice dean then decides within ten business days, and that decision is expressly “a final action.”
  • Grade appeals: five business days at every step — to the course director, then their response, then to the senior associate dean for UME, then their response, then to the vice dean.

USF Regulation 6.0021, which governs the separate conduct track, defines a “Day” as one when the University is open for regular business and provides that for emailed correspondence the day of delivery is not counted. The medical school handbook does not adopt that definition. Where a three-day leave-of-absence appeal has no stated unit and the University’s own regulation defines the term differently, there is a real argument about what the deadline was — but it is an argument to make from inside the window, not after it.

Recusal rights that are worth using

USF publishes the strongest recusal protections of any Florida medical school, and most students never invoke them.

A “negative bias” rule bars any member who has issued a prior failing course or clerkship grade to the student, or who has previously reported concerns about the student’s professionalism, from discussing, deliberating or voting on an adverse motion. Beyond that: “Students appearing before the APRC have the right to request a recusal of any member.” The chair gives the student an opportunity to declare conflicts privately before the meeting, and the handbook states there will be no adverse consequences for a student who reports one.

Ask for the membership list before the meeting. Cross-check it against every person who has graded you or filed a professionalism report. Raise conflicts privately, in writing, in advance.

Advisors: permitted, and silenced

At an APRC petition the student “may be accompanied by a person of the student’s choosing to provide support and counsel” — but “the person of the student’s choosing may not act as the student’s attorney in the meeting,” and once the petition has been presented the student and their support person are excused. The ad hoc grade appeal committee is the same: the person “may not speak directly to the committee on the student’s behalf.” No advisor right is published at all for the appeal to the dean.

Now compare Regulation 6.0021, the conduct track at the same university: an advisor “may participate in all aspects of the proceeding but shall not testify,” and if the advisor is “an advocate or legal representative, they must adhere to the same guidelines as any other advisor.” An attorney may participate in the conduct process and is silenced in the academic one.

USF is a public institution, so Fla. Stat. § 1006.60 applies to its conduct proceedings — including § 1006.60(3)(g), which gives the student a legal representative who may “directly participate in all aspects of the proceeding, including the presentation of relevant information and questioning of witnesses,” and § 1006.60(3)(b), which puts the burden on the institution to prove a violation by a preponderance. Whether a case is characterised as an academic performance matter or a conduct violation therefore decides which of those two rooms you are standing in. That characterisation is the first thing to examine, and sometimes the first thing to contest.

The exit that preserves the record

USF publishes something most schools do not: a negotiated withdrawal. A Withdraw Failing grade “may be issued by the MCOM dean to students who are appealing an APRC dismissal decision,” and students “may petition the dean for a WF grade and voluntarily withdraw from the MD program before an anticipated dismissal decision that would appear on the student’s academic record.”

Where dismissal is close to certain, a withdrawal rather than a dismissal materially changes what has to be disclosed on a future application. The window closes once the decision issues, so this is a question to raise early rather than a fallback after the appeal fails.

The rules that produce most USF dismissals

  • USMLE sponsorship is capped at three attempts each for Step 1 and Step 2 CK. After a second failure the student must petition the APRC, and the petition must include a reflection on the earlier attempts.
  • The six-year rule. All requirements within six years of the first day of year 1, and “under ordinary circumstances” a student must be eligible for promotion to year 3 within four academic years. Failure to meet these limits is itself grounds for dismissal.
  • One repeat only. A second failure in the same course ordinarily results in dismissal.
  • Professionalism escalates mechanically. Unexcused absences, tardies and late assignments generate Professional Behavior Reports, cap grades, and trigger APRC referral at defined counts — two makes a student ineligible for Honors, three or more caps the grade at Remediation and refers to the APRC.
  • Silence during a leave is a dismissal trigger. “A student who is non-communicative during their LOA or who does not respond to communications from the MCOM during their LOA is subject to dismissal.”
  • Return can be refused for reasons unrelated to you. “Return to enrollment may be denied if all positions (seats) in the cohort are filled, even if a student meets all other qualifications.”

An involuntary health-related leave is capped at six months. Return requires petitioning the APRC at least two months ahead with documentation from a pre-approved provider, and the University may require a second independent opinion at its own expense.

What standard of proof applies?

None is published for the academic track. The dismissal triggers are criterion-based, then widened by a catch-all: dismissal may follow “any other evidence of poor academic performance or unprofessional behavior as determined by the APRC,” and a student “whose performance, though passing, is marginal or poor in several courses” may be dismissed if the committee determines they do not meet MCOM’s competency standards. Passing grades are not, by themselves, a defence. The conduct track under Regulation 6.0021 does apply preponderance.

Where the governing documents are

Verified as loading on 3 September 2026:

The handbook is distributed as a Word document, not a PDF. It has no fixed pagination and can be revised at the same address without notice. Download and date-stamp a copy the day you are notified of anything. The SELECT MD track, whose clinical years run at USF Health Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania, has its own supplemental handbook.

Related reading

Other Florida health-professional programs

Every school writes its own dismissal, appeal and conduct rules, and the filing deadlines are rarely the same from one campus to the next. These pages set out the procedure at other Florida health-professional programs:

Common questions

How long do I have to respond to a USF APRC decision?

Five business days from receipt. If you do not sign within that window the committee treats your silence as acceptance of its action, so responding in writing inside five business days matters even before you have settled on an argument.

Can I bring an attorney to the APRC?

You may bring a person for support and counsel, but they may not act as your attorney in the meeting, and you are both excused once your petition has been presented. In USF’s separate conduct process a legal representative may participate in all aspects of the proceeding.

Can I ask for a committee member to be recused?

Yes. USF gives students an express right to request recusal of any member, invites conflicts to be raised privately with the chair beforehand, and states there will be no adverse consequences for raising one.

How many USMLE attempts will USF sponsor?

Three for each of Step 1 and Step 2 CK. After a second failure you must petition the APRC, and the petition must reflect on the previous attempts.

Is withdrawing better than being dismissed?

Sometimes, and USF publishes a route for it: the dean may issue a Withdraw Failing grade to a student appealing a dismissal, or on petition before an anticipated dismissal decision. It has to be raised before the decision issues, and it is a decision to weigh carefully rather than a default.