The CUNY School of Medicine MD program

M1 and M2 form the pre-clerkship phase, the two years before full-time clinical rotations. They are built from nine organ-system modules, six in M1 and three in M2. Each module teaches one body system's anatomy, histology, physiology, pharmacology and pathology together, with the diseases that disrupt it. The school calls M1 integrated, with large and small group sessions and self-directed learning.

Practice of Medicine runs through all four pre-clerkship semesters. In it you learn to interview patients, take a full history, carry out an advanced physical examination, reason toward a diagnosis and present your findings aloud and in writing. The catalog says these skills are taught in step with the organ systems. That way you learn how a disease works and how it shows up in a patient at the same time.

Population health continues alongside. Evidence-Based Medicine runs in M1 and M2, training you in advanced biostatistics and epidemiology so you can judge research and apply it to decisions about individual patients. The catalog counts these as the sixth and seventh courses in a population health sequence that BS/MD students begin in U1.

M3 and M4 are taught mainly through clerkships, where you work as part of a hospital or clinic team. Short classroom courses frame them: a one-week Clerkship Orientation at the end of M2, a one-week Intersession in the middle of M3, and Introduction to Internship near the end of M4.

On the BS/MD route, gross anatomy is taught in Clinical Anatomy (MED 33609), a five-credit course at the end of U3. The catalog describes lectures in gross anatomy and embryology alongside detailed regional dissections, in which you work through the body one region at a time. The course also covers how imaging shows the body's structure. In spring 2027 the course runs every weekday afternoon from April 12 to May 27.

Anatomy then continues inside the M1 and M2 organ-system modules, each of which teaches the anatomy of its body system. The modules include an anatomy practical exam, and the handbook lets a student who fails one pass after a reassessment.

A faculty profile adds that anatomy is taught with ultrasound and 3D CT and MRI images, and that video dissection guides support the cadaver work. Saint Barnabas Hospital's orthopedic residents also serve as anatomy instructors for CUNY medical students. In a tribute reported in March 2026, BS/MD and physician assistant students honored the people who donated their bodies with a publication of art, poetry and essays and a virtual event.

Patient contact starts in M1 through Practice of Medicine. The MD Degree page says you begin learning clinical skills in classroom and clinical settings in M1. In M2 you keep learning from patients and health care teams in hospitals and clinics.

The catalog's description of Practice of Medicine, which still numbers M1 and M2 as years 4 and 5 of the seven-year program, fills in the detail. You get supervised, hands-on experience with patients through a longitudinal clinical experience (LCE) at an assigned outpatient site you keep returning to, plus other hospital and clinic sessions.

BS/MD students meet community health settings earlier, in the U2 summer course Evaluation in Healthcare Settings. Full-time clinical work starts with M3 in late June. In 2026 the school marked the start of clinical training for third-year students with a Student Clinician White Coat Ceremony on June 10.

M1 and M2 courses are graded pass/fail, and the school does not measure progress by a cumulative GPA. If you pass the rest of a module but fail its NBME exam, you get a Conditional grade and, if eligible, a re-sit; passing it turns the grade into Conditional/Pass. Failing two modules in one semester means repeating both with the next year's class.

Clinical skills are tested in OSCEs. The M2 Clinical Skills Assessment is a week-long summative OSCE, with written assignments, that checks you are ready for clerkships. M3 adds clerkship OSCEs and the end-of-M3 summative OSCE in late March, and you must pass both summative OSCEs to graduate.

Clerkships in M3 and M4 are graded Honors, High Pass, Pass or Fail; High Pass covers strong performance up to the top 40 percent of students. Alongside clinical evaluations, grades draw on an NBME subject exam, called a shelf exam, a clerkship OSCE and a special project. Passing one of these at the second attempt still earns a Pass, noted in your Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE), the evaluation the school writes for residency applications.

Step 1 tests whether you understand and can apply the sciences basic to medicine, and has been reported only as pass or fail since January 26, 2022. Step 2 CK (Clinical Knowledge) is still reported as a three-digit score. LCME accreditation is what makes students of an MD program like this one eligible to sit them.

Before Step 1 you take a required NBME readiness exam, the Comprehensive Basic Science Examination (CBSE). If your score predicts too low a chance of passing, you join Bridge to Clerkship, an independent study course. You have at most three attempts at Step 1, all within a year of the school's deadline. Students who do not pass Step 1 by the deadlines to start M3 in Block 1 or 2 begin M3 the following year.

In August 2026 the USMLE program announced a move to designated testing dates from January 2029, with Step exams offered less often each year. Its June 2026 announcement had named 2028. On the current schedule, a student starting M1 in summer 2027 would sit Step 1 around May to June 2029, a few months after the switch. Step 2 CK would follow by July 31, 2030.

• These are projections from the published calendar pattern, not school dates. The school sets a Step 1 deadline each year within M2; on the 2026-27 calendars, the M2 spring term ends on May 21, 2027, and M3 starts in late June (June 22 in 2026).
• On the current schedule, starting the MPS-HS in fall 2027 would put M1 in 2028, Step 1 around May to June 2030 and Step 2 CK by July 31, 2031. Starting the BS/MD from high school in 2027 would put M1 in 2030, Step 1 around May to June 2032 and Step 2 CK by July 31, 2033.
• Step 2 CK can be taken only after you complete M3, by July 31. You need a pass by May 1 of M4 to be certified for graduation, and a third failure makes you subject to dismissal.
• Also pass/fail: Clerkship Orientation, Intersession, the neurology clerkship, the end-of-M3 assessment, electives and Introduction to Internship.
• Time limits: M1, M2 and Step 1 within four years, M3, M4 and Step 2 CK within four more, and the whole MD within eight years, including leaves.

Clinical training happens at affiliated hospitals and clinics across New York City. The City College catalog says the school partners with the NYC Health + Hospitals system, Saint Barnabas Hospital and others for clinical training across the five boroughs. The Clinical Affiliates page names NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem, Saint Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx and Staten Island University Hospital. The BS/MD pages add Jacobi/North Central Bronx and Kings County.

Your M3 sites come from a lottery in the early spring of M2. You rank your preferences for the order and sites of your six core clerkships, then have one week to swap sites with classmates. After that, a change needs a compelling reason, such as a major life event, health, disability or a conscientious objection. Once a clerkship has started, concerns about the team or learning environment also count.

Clerkship duties can include nights, weekends and holidays. Duty hours are capped at 80 a week, averaged over a rotation, and no shift may run past 24 hours plus three hours to hand over. Emergency department shifts are limited to 12 hours in a row, and you get one day off in seven. Missing more than a fifth of a clerkship, about one day per week, means repeating it.

In M4, the required core rotations and Introduction to Internship must be completed at CUNY affiliates, while electives can also be taken elsewhere.

Electives come in M4. You need at least four four-week electives, with no more than three in one specialty, and each is graded pass/fail on a clinical assessment form and on meeting the rotation's requirements. The 2026-27 curriculum map lists M4 electives in 27 subjects, from anesthesiology, dermatology and radiation oncology to narrative medicine, medical education and population health.

You can also design an independent study or research elective with a supervising preceptor, or take away electives at other US institutions, which the school calls extramural. The handbook allows up to 16 weeks of M4 elective time elsewhere. You apply through the Visiting Student Learning Opportunities (VSLO) service or a program's own process, and the Elective Oversight Committee must approve before you accept an offer.

An away clinical elective needs an affiliation agreement with the host, which New York State requires for your malpractice cover. If the school cannot set one up or arrange other cover, the elective cannot go ahead. Clinical electives must avoid Blocks 7 to 9, and before arranging any electives you are expected to meet a Medical Student Advisor to plan a broad mix.

Research is built into M1 through Selectives in Population Health Research, which runs across both semesters. In the fall you choose a topic matched to faculty expertise, such as health services for opioid dependence, and are assigned a faculty mentor. The catalog describes two tracks: tackling population health problems from published research, or an independent mentored project carried on over two years.

In the spring half, the catalog says the class works in small groups on one shared project designed by the course director, ending in a paper written as a publishable manuscript. The course also reviews the research methods, epidemiology and biostatistics you need for Step 1, and is graded pass/fail.

The optional Track of Distinction in Research leads to an MD with Honors in Research, recognized at graduation. Track A is one mentored project from M1 to M4, ending in a manuscript submitted for publication. Track B is a set of projects in one health area, ending in a capstone at the Spring Research Symposium. Track C asks M4 applicants to have published at least five peer-reviewed papers and presented a poster.

For summers, the Rudin Research Fellowship involves at least six weeks of full-time research with CUNY Medicine or City College faculty. The Mack Lipkin Broader Horizons Fellowship lets students with research experience travel abroad after U3 or M1 for a project of their own design. Partner programs include summer programs at Columbia in urology, cardiology, rheumatology and addiction, and a Mount Sinai training program in health disparities research.

For a full research year, a student in good standing who has passed all required licensing exams can request an academic leave of up to one year. The Dorothy and Max Bendich Research Fellowship partly supports a year away from the curriculum for mentored research at an external site.

Harris Hall, on the City College campus at 160 Convent Avenue, has study and social space for the school's students. There are individual study spaces, group study pods, computer rooms and a student lounge with a pool table, ping pong and microwaves.

The school also has a Clinical Skills Lab, which holds 40 people. Department of Medical Education faculty develop and run the school's patient simulation and standardized patient sessions, mentoring students as they work through them.

Anatomy teaching uses a cadaver lab. According to one anatomy professor's faculty profile, he has developed imaging labs and virtual reality workshops. He also manages a project to bring in Anatomage virtual dissection technology, alongside other improvements to the lab.

At the start of the MD you are assigned a Medical Student Advisor, who meets you in groups and one to one about careers, USMLE preparation and electives. In the second half of the program, the advisors help prepare your MSPE. During M3 you also choose a career advisor from the clinical faculty in the specialty that interests you.

Career advising runs every year. It moves from CV building and the Association of American Medical Colleges' Careers in Medicine resources in M1 to residency application strategy, mock interviews and ranking programs in M4. It also covers the Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP), the process for applicants who do not match.

The Learning Resource Center offers free peer tutoring, in person or remote, plus academic counseling, learning success labs and learning specialists who coach study and test-taking skills. Department of Medical Education faculty also act as academic coaches. Bridge to M1 is a required summer program before M1 for BS graduates who earned B-minus or lower in two or more of four core science courses.

The Counseling and Wellness Center, on the first floor of Harris Hall or by Zoom, has psychologists, clinical social workers and a psychiatrist. There are no session limits, and it offers free neuropsychological evaluations. On the BS route, your advisor meets your advisee group monthly in the first year, and Sophie Davis students can ask to slow the BS to a four-year track.