An elective that has grown in popularity with P&S students is the preceptorship, a resurgence of the old apprentice system, whereby a student selects a preceptor in a given field and stays with that person throughout the working day and night, for an entire month. Currently more than four out of every five fourth year students select preceptorships for one or more months. Most of these preceptorships, some 150 months, are in clinical medicine; however, as many as 60 fourth year student-months are spent in research preceptorships.