Week In The Life

Overview of Pre-clerkship on Campus Time:

Our preclerkship curriculum runs from July to the end of May in your first year and August to mid-February in your second year. It begins with foundational courses in the fall of M1 and transitions to organ systems courses. There are three longitudinal courses that run concurrently with the foundational and organ systems courses throughout both years. In February, at the completion of preclerkship courses, you will begin an 8-week dedicated study period for the USMLE Step-1 exam. The transition to the clerkship course occurs in the middle of April, followed by the beginning of your clerkship phase.

Our faculty collaborate to ensure that scheduled activities across all courses are at or below 30 hours a week and thereby provide time for you to study, pursue research, go to the gym, etc.  All courses utilize a combination of large group lectures and small group activities.  The active learning components in the courses can be dissections, case-based learning, flipped classrooms, small group discussions, and other formats.

The mandatory first week of orientation and following first three weeks of the curriculum (July 20 -August 14) will be fully in person, meaning 5 days per week from approximately 9am-4pm with some days starting at 8am and some days ending at 5pm. After this initial period, you will frequently be on campus between 8am-4pm three days of the week, with the potential for an additional day during anatomy studies in September-October (as seen in the attached schedule). An on-campus day may have lectures, case-based learning, and lab. Alternatively, you may be traveling to the hospital in the afternoon for an experiential activity from 1-5 PM as part of our Patient Centered Medicine and Health Equity Course.    Lectures are typically recorded, and it is left to the discretion of the student whether to attend in person for non-mandatory lectures. You’ll generally have two to three half-days each week that are intentionally left unscheduled for self-study.