The Brown Alpert Medical School MD program

IMS teaches the science through lectures and small groups. After a first semester of foundations it follows the body system by system, covering normal physiology and then the pathology and pharmacology of common diseases. Health Systems Science (HSS), part of IMS, adds the social and system factors that shape health care.

Doctoring teaches clinical skills and professional development in three courses over 15 months, with small groups led by medical faculty and by social and behavioral science faculty. It lines up with IMS where it can. While you study the nervous system in Brain Sciences, for example, you dissect the head in Human Anatomy II and learn the neurologic exam in Doctoring II.

The Integrated Clinical Curriculum (ICC), which began with curriculum changes in 2024, ties basic science, clinical science and HSS together through case scenarios. After pre-reading and practice questions, you work through team-based questions in small groups, then a faculty member guides a clinical case.

Your pre-clerkship week is shaped by a workload policy, last reviewed in December 2021 and still cited in the 2026-27 handbook. Apart from orientation week, required activities are limited to 20 hours a week, between 9am and 5pm on weekdays, with rare exceptions. Nothing is scheduled on weekends.

The same policy protects at least 20 unscheduled hours a week on average, and never fewer than 15, for independent study. In Year 2, the school's research pages describe Wednesdays as self-directed learning time, which you can use for a scholarly project. You also get one personal day per semester in IMS courses and two per semester in Years 3 and 4.

On clerkships you work full-time at your site and take on-call duty on scheduled nights and weekends. The school follows the work-hour rules of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). That means no more than 80 hours a week and one day off a week, both averaged over four weeks. A shift can run to 24 hours, plus up to four more for education or patient safety.

Anatomy at Brown Alpert is taught by cadaveric dissection, meaning you cut and study donated human bodies yourself. There are two required Year 1 courses, Human Anatomy I in Semester 1 and Human Anatomy II in Semester 2, and lab attendance is mandatory. A 2022 Brown story describes an annual Ceremony of Gratitude, where students honor donors to Brown's Anatomical Gift Program and meet their families.

Human Anatomy I opens with lectures and online modules on how the body is organized, the nervous system and early embryology. Blocks on the thorax (chest), abdomen and pelvis follow. Each pairs lectures on structure, function and development with lab dissection, an imaging module linking the lab to X-ray and CT, and self-study of bones.

Human Anatomy II runs alongside other courses. During Brain Sciences you dissect the face, brain, eye socket, oral and nasal cavities, pharynx and larynx, with MRI and CT images of the head. During Supporting Structures you dissect the arms and legs in groups, with a focus on common clinical problems.

You sit four written and three lab practical exams in Human Anatomy I, and two of each in Human Anatomy II. You need at least 70 percent across the combined exams to pass. Two electives go further: Advanced Anatomy offers four three-hour dissection labs, and Advanced Surgical Anatomy, for second-year students, pairs dissection with teaching from surgeons.

You first meet patients through Doctoring I in Semester 1, which includes clinical skills practice with standardized and real patients. You also use those skills in real practice, alongside a community physician-mentor. You keep a Clinical Experience Log and write reflective field notes and patient case write-ups. Community-based service learning, on the social factors that shape health, is also part of Doctoring.

Optional programs add more contact: the Rhode Island Free Clinic takes 20 to 25 medical students a year and the Student Navigator Program about 40. Students also volunteer at Clinica Esperanza, a free clinic in Providence. In the MOMS elective, you are paired with an expectant mother, go to her prenatal visits and may attend the birth. Student groups include the Brown Human Rights Asylum Clinic, and the student-run Brown Vision Initiative gives free eye exams at the Free Clinic under a physician's supervision.

In the clinical years your hands-on role grows. You learn procedures such as drawing blood and placing IVs under close supervision. You may also enter patient orders as a learning exercise, which a supervising physician must review and countersign.

Every pre-clerkship course is graded Satisfactory (S), Existing Deficiency (ED), No Credit (NC) or Incomplete (INC), so Years 1 and 2 have no Honors tier. ED is a temporary grade: you fell short in part of a course and can fix it with limited extra work. NC means a larger shortfall or a failed remediation. INC covers work you could not finish for reasons beyond your control.

IMS grades rest mainly on exam scores, with a pass mark of 70 percent. HSS and anatomy must each reach that mark on their exams, even if other parts of the course went well, and you get one remediation exam. Doctoring grades rest on small-group performance, OSCEs, case write-ups, field notes, community mentor sessions and service learning.

Most clinical courses in Years 3 and 4 add Honors. Several electives and all courses under four weeks stay Satisfactory or No Credit. A shelf exam is a subject test from the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME). A clerkship grade generally combines sub-competency ratings with scores from that exam, an OSCE or similar skills test, and other graded work such as a case presentation.

Sub-competencies are specific, observable skills under six broad competencies, such as patient care and professionalism. For classes graduating from 2028, faculty rate them on a scale tied to expected behaviors and add written comments. You pass a shelf exam at or above the fifth-percentile score from national norms. On the 2024-25 clerkship page, clinical evaluations made up 50 to 75 percent of a clerkship grade and shelf exams 5 to 25 percent.

Step 1 tests the sciences basic to medical practice and has been reported as pass/fail only since January 2022. Step 2 CK tests how you apply clinical science to supervised patient care. You are expected to take Step 1 in the dedicated study period after classes end and before the Clinical Skills Clerkship; in 2026 that period ran from January 5 to February 13. Step 2 CK must be taken before November 1 of Year 4.

In August 2026 the USMLE program announced a move to designated testing dates from January 2029, with Step exams offered less often each year. A June 2026 announcement had named 2028, so the date has already moved once. On the current schedule, if you enter in 2027 you would finish Year 2 classes about December 2028, study from January 2029 and sit Step 1 by about mid-February, shortly after the switch. Your Step 2 CK deadline would fall about November 2030, after the switch.

• The USMLE program's FAQ lists 17 Step 1 and 14 Step 2 CK administrations for 2029, and says dates will be published more than a year ahead of each calendar year.
• Delaying Step 1 needs approval, on academic, medical or family grounds or on your Step advising team's advice. A delayed exam must be passed by June 1 of Year 4.
• To graduate you must pass Step 1, Step 2 CK and the End-of-Clerkship-Phase OSCE, and you may take each Step exam no more than three times.
• You must pass every part of a clerkship to pass it, and an ED or NC in any clinical rotation rules out Honors there.
• One ED or NC is noted for information only. A second brings consideration for Academic Warning, a third for Academic Probation and any more for dismissal.
• By policy, every required clerkship, and every pre-clerkship course of four weeks or more, gives you formal feedback by its midpoint. On clerkships, you meet the clerkship director, or a faculty member they assign, to review strengths and areas to improve.
• You must complete the MD within six years of enrolling, counting any approved leave or research time.
• The Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) accredits MD programs in the United States. Its directory lists Brown Alpert with full accreditation and a next survey in 2028-29. For MD students, LCME accreditation is what makes you eligible to sit the USMLE.

The school's Affiliated Hospitals page lists the Greater Providence and Warwick sites below and says they are all within a 15-minute drive of campus. Newport Hospital is not on that page, but the school lists it for clerkships, sub-internships and electives.

Most sites belong to two health systems. Brown University Health includes Rhode Island Hospital, Hasbro, The Miriam, Bradley and Newport. Care New England includes Butler, Women & Infants and Kent. Rhode Island Hospital is the principal teaching affiliate, and the school describes it as the state's largest hospital and the Level 1 Trauma Center for southeastern New England.

Your sites come from a secure online lottery based on your preferences, covering both clerkships and Year 4. Once schedules are set, you can ask for a change only for serious reasons, such as a conflict with an evaluator or a major life event.

Getting around takes some planning. The handbook warns that clinical rotations, including Doctoring visits, may be at sites that need a car. During business hours, the Brown shuttle stops at campus locations and the main entrance of Rhode Island Hospital.

The clerkship list below comes from the school's page for 2024-25, so check sites for your year. Family Medicine's home base is the Family Care Center in Pawtucket.

• Medicine and surgery: Rhode Island Hospital, The Miriam Hospital, Providence VA Medical Center, Kent Hospital and Newport Hospital.
• Pediatrics: Hasbro Children's Hospital and Women & Infants Hospital, plus Milford Hospital and St. Luke's Hospital.
• Obstetrics and gynecology: Women & Infants Hospital and Kent Hospital.
• Psychiatry and neurology: Butler, Providence VA Medical Center, Rhode Island Hospital, Bradley Hospital and The Miriam Hospital.
• Family medicine: the table names Kent Hospital.

Electives start early. Pre-clerkship electives are optional, and many are designed and led by students with a faculty advisor. The Fall 2026 catalog includes Essentials of Procedural Skills, Food and Health with Johnson & Wales University, Wilderness Medicine, and introductions to medical Arabic, medical Portuguese and American Sign Language.

Across Years 3 and 4 you need at least 84 weeks of clinical instruction, with at least 72 at Brown. The school's 2024-25 clerkship page still shows 80; the 2026-27 handbook sets 84 for classes graduating from 2028. At least 28 of your 40 Year 4 elective weeks must be at Brown-affiliated sites.

The clinical elective list runs by department. Titles include Healthcare for the Homeless Communities, Rural Family and Emergency Medicine, Child Abuse Pediatrics, Forensic/Correctional Psychiatry and Wilderness & Environmental Medicine. Emergency medicine is an elective here, not a core clerkship. It runs mainly at Rhode Island Hospital and The Miriam Hospital, with optional shifts at Hasbro Children's Hospital.

Sub-internships range from internal medicine to general surgery, plastic surgery and neurosurgery, and you can take more than one as space allows. You can also do independent study, a research project or supervised clinical work at Brown under a faculty sponsor, for up to 12 weeks across Years 3 and 4. Proposals are due at least five weeks before the start date.

Away rotations are electives at another institution, often taken as part of the residency selection process. You can take up to three four-week away rotations, or 12 weeks, before needing special permission. Most schools take applications through a service from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). An away sub-internship counts only if it meets Brown's guidelines.

Year 4 students can also apply for the international exchange, a rotation of about three to four weeks between January and April at a partner medical school. Current sites are in Austria, Brazil, China, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Ghana, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Pakistan, South Korea and Taiwan. You rank three sites and write a short essay, and a Brown faculty liaison completes your evaluation.

The Primary Care-Population Medicine (PC-PM) program combines the MD with a Master of Science in Population Medicine (ScM). It adds a nine-course sequence and a thesis, covering research methods, quantitative methods, leadership and health systems. Most students should finish in four years, with the option of an extra year. You begin your thesis research in the summer after Year 1.

PC-PM students spend Year 3 in a longitudinal integrated clerkship (LIC), which weaves the core specialties together instead of teaching them in blocks. Its 44 weeks combine 30 weeks of outpatient half-days with mentors and 14 inpatient weeks. You follow a panel of about three to five patients at each mentor site into settings such as the operating room and delivery room.

The Warren Alpert Physician-Scientist MD/PhD and Advanced Training Program pairs the MD with a PhD in any graduate program in Brown's Division of Biology and Medicine. You apply through the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS), and current Brown medical students and PLME students can also apply. The admissions FAQ says the school does not yet take part in the National Institutes of Health Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP).

You complete the pre-clerkship phase and must pass Step 1 before starting PhD work, and later PhD years include a half-day of clinic every two weeks. You return for clerkships after defending your thesis, starting with the Clinical Skills Clerkship in February. You are expected to finish both degrees within eight years.

The school also lists a Master of Public Health option. Brown's one-year Accelerated MPH for Clinicians accepts medical students who have completed at least two years of medical school.

To join Scholarly Concentrations, you choose an area and a mentor in Year 1 and apply by February. An 8-to-10-week summer project follows, then work during Year 2 self-directed time and Years 3 and 4 electives. You present your project in February or March of Year 4, and completion is noted in your Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE), the summary sent to residency programs.

• The school's concentration areas include Aging; Caring for Underserved Communities; Global Health; Health Informatics and AI; Medical Humanities and Ethics; Medical Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship; and Planetary Health.
• The admissions office says nearly 90 percent of students take part in clinical or basic science research. All summer award holders present at the Academic Symposium each November.
• Summer Research Assistantships support summer projects, from basic science to advocacy and medical humanities.
• The Basic and Translational Research Program, funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, offers a nine-week summer project after Year 1 on heart, blood and lung disease.
• The Academic Scholar Program excuses you from classes for one semester to two years of approved research under Brown faculty. You cannot be enrolled in another degree program at the same time.

The medical school building at 222 Richmond Street has four floors. Built in 1928 as a jewelry factory, it later became offices and opened as the school's home in 2011. It holds lecture halls, case study rooms, the Herbert M. Kaplan Atrium and, on the third floor, the anatomy lab.

The Clinical Skills Simulation Center and the Standardized Patient Program support your Doctoring work, and clinical skills training and exams take place in the Clinical Skills Suites. Medical librarians offer one-on-one research consultations, from finding a topic to managing citations.

Before you start, you are matched with a Mary B. Arnold mentor, a faculty member who gives academic, personal and career advice across all four years. You first meet at orientation, then have one-on-one and group sessions through Year 1.

Older students help too. Al's Pals pairs incoming students with Year 2 mentors, and Study Smart is an optional series of study sessions organized by second-year students. Doctoring Peer Mentors, two to four per small group, give feedback on clinical skills and take part in mock OSCEs. Peer tutoring is free and runs year-round in all phases.

The Office of Academic Support advises on study strategies, time management and test taking, and manages disability accommodations. In first-semester IMS courses, the assistant dean for the pre-clerkship curriculum contacts you early if you score below 70 percent on any exam component. Doctoring coaches give one-on-one help to students at high risk of not meeting course requirements.

On clerkships, if you struggle on a shelf exam, you are connected with the Office of Academic Support or peer tutoring. For the USMLE, the school offers content review sessions, tutoring, student panels and planning meetings.

For well-being, group check-ins run through your Mary B. Arnold advising cohort in Year 1, with more possible at points such as Step 1 study. Counseling and Psychological Services has a therapist dedicated to medical students, and a Student Support Committee plans support for students who are struggling.

The Office of Career Development supports residency applications through CV and personal statement help, mock interviews and class meetings in Years 3 and 4. Its Careers in Medicine series offers about 10 to 15 specialty panels each semester for first- and second-year students.