The Drexel University College of Medicine MD program

Foundations and Frontiers debuted in 2017-2018. In Phase 1, courses are multidisciplinary, so anatomy, physiology and other sciences meet in the same block rather than running as separate subjects.

Lectures look different from the traditional 50-minute format. Content arrives as tutorials, handouts and recorded videos, most of them 20 to 30 minutes long, and the school says most students watch at home at 1.5 times speed. About half of scheduled hours are team-oriented sessions with faculty, focused on applying the material.

Four one-week Frontiers blocks add health informatics, population health, quality and patient safety, health care economics and translational research. Required health advocacy courses cover topics such as street medicine and care for people who are incarcerated, and an ethics curriculum covers informed decision-making, medical mistakes and end-of-life choices.

From the clerkship year on, you learn mainly on clinical teams, and you usually follow your resident's schedule. All sites share common objectives, and each clerkship location has an on-site associate director who works with a clerkship director at the college.

The school's sample schedule, dated August 2023, shows a Phase 1 week running from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The school says every week has built-in study time.

• Mondays: usually several hours of Independent Learning materials, which prepare you for the weekly case, and self-directed study.
• Tuesday mornings: Case-Based Learning, a two-hour block either 8 to 10 or 10 to 12, with independent work for the rest of the morning.
• Wednesday to Friday mornings: team-based learning, labs, modules or self-directed study.
• Afternoons: Foundations of Patient Care or the Health Advocacy Practicum on Tuesdays and Thursdays, more live sessions or independent work on Wednesdays, and a multidisciplinary review on Fridays.

Anatomy sits inside your first-year courses rather than in a stand-alone class. The Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy runs it as the Gross Anatomy thread, a subject that runs through several courses, organized by body region. The back, limbs, head and neck come in Human Structure and Function 1, and the thorax, abdomen and pelvis in Human Structure and Function 2.

The department's teaching page, read in November 2026, calls dissection of human cadavers an important part of the thread. The anatomy lab's facilities page, modified in March 2026, says students on both campuses work in groups of 4-5 to complete full-body dissections. The department says dissection lets you discover structures and the variation between people, build empathy for those who donated their bodies and practice communicating in a team. You also learn to identify structures in four imaging methods used in practice.

You can download dissection instructions to the lab computers or your own laptop or iPad, and faculty use cameras to review dissection material and radiographs with the class. Lab components have practical exams.

Each campus also has prosection stations, where donor bodies are prepared in advance for you to study, and Sectra tables for virtual dissection and 3D views. University City adds an Anatomy Resource Center with models and bones, and West Reading a Bio-Skills Lab. In Philadelphia, the anatomy lab's page describes point-of-care ultrasound sessions, mainly for first-year students, on regions such as the head and neck and the heart.

Your first clinical practice is with stand-ins. In your first few weeks you start with virtual patients, standardized patients in the Clinical Education and Assessment Center (CEAC) and the simulation center. Foundations of Patient Care also uses real patients on hospital wards for interviewing practice, and students visit geriatric living facilities, an emergency room and an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.

The Health Advocacy Practicum is your first sustained contact with people in the community. You send the course your top five sites at the start of year 1. You might visit a hospice patient, get to know an older adult with chronic illness, teach high school students training as nursing assistants, or help someone at a shelter write a resume.

Supervision steps down in stages. Under a policy last revised in 2021, first- and second-year students are directly supervised when they first enter clinical settings, and may take histories, do exams and perform procedures they are trained for. Third- and fourth-year students work at least under indirect supervision, with a physician or delegate available on site. Breast, rectal and gynecologic exams and procedures needing extra consent wait until third year, under direct supervision.

Health Outreach Project clinics add patient contact if you volunteer. Philadelphia sites include the Salvation Army Adult Rehab Center, the Red Shield Center family shelter and Streetside at Prevention Point. West Reading sites include Berks Clinic, FaithCare Clinic and Street Medicine at Hope Rescue Mission.

In Phase 1 you take weekly checkpoint quizzes, with answers and explanations shown once you finish. Major integrated exams come every three to four weeks and are mainly multiple choice, in the style of USMLE questions. Lab-based components have practical exams, and clinical skills are assessed with standardized patients and other formats. Each course also takes part of its grade from work such as oral presentations, papers and projects.

The 2023 look book (an MD program brochure) and a program page published in June 2024 both describe a pass-fail program for the first two years. Drexel's financial aid page says the college does not measure progress by a cumulative grade point average. It says you need an S (Satisfactory) grade or better in each required course, and that the Promotions Committee reviews your performance at the end of each academic year. To earn the MD you must take and pass USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 CK (Clinical Knowledge).

Clinical rotations are graded Honors, Highly Satisfactory or Satisfactory. Under a policy effective in February 2020, passing a third-year clerkship takes two things. You must meet expectations in your clinical work and reach the clerkship's minimum score on an NBME subject exam, known as a shelf exam. These national tests come at the end of most clerkships.

Honors requires excellent clinical performance and a set exam score, and most clerkships set one for Highly Satisfactory too. Some clerkships add presentations, projects or oral exams. The 2020 policies also promise mid-block feedback on rotations of four weeks or more, and final grades within six weeks. Clinical skills training includes a fourth-year Clinical Practice Examination before graduation, and the absence policy for Phases 2 and 3 names a Clinical Skills Assessment.

Step 1 tests the science behind medicine and has been reported pass/fail since January 26, 2022. Year 2 classes end in mid-February, and six to seven weeks of dedicated study follow. As one past example, a reference table in November 2023 slides for the Class of 2026 had students starting clerkships on time sit by April 12, 2024, the Friday before Clerkship Fundamentals.

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 said 2028, and the program's FAQs list 17 Step 1 and 14 Step 2 CK administrations for 2029. On the current schedule, projected from earlier classes, a 2027 entrant finishes year 2 classes in mid-February 2029 and starts Clerkship Fundamentals that April. So Step 1 falls within a few months after the switch, and Step 2 CK comes after it too.

• Step 2 CK, Class of 2025 example: November 2023 slides recommended sitting between May and August. The school deadline was August 25, 2024, or 42 calendar days after finishing third year and its shelf exams, whichever was later. A pass was needed for the school to certify you for the Match.

Training sites work with the college through academic affiliation agreements, and their physicians hold Drexel faculty appointments. The 2026-27 clerkship grid names 28 sites, from large health systems to family practices, plus others chosen by departments. The school warns that sites can change. Notes on each area draw on slides the sites showed students in late 2025.

An online system called DOCSS runs the lottery in two stages in the Class of 2029 guide. Stage 1 sets everyone's order of rotations, with fewer options for regional campus students, and in Stage 2 students who rotate across sites rank those sites. Everyone gets an equal chance, but you may land your last choice. A few students in each discipline and block get a Various Sites slot, with the site decided later.

A regional medical campus can host you for the whole clerkship year, and on the college's own figures it is the more common route. A March 2025 college article said about 220 students in a class of around 300 are based at one. The 2026-27 site map names eight, and students can ask for a full third year at one.

The Class of 2029 timeline marks the all-year request for Philadelphia campus students. For the Class of 2029, requests are due December 3, 2026, and places go by random number and ranking. The Class of 2029 guide says you then stay at that campus's sites and take required fourth-year courses there. Empty places go to volunteers, then to a random draw, and primary caregivers and students with a disability accommodation letter can ask for an all-year site.

A car is required for clinical training, and travel costs are yours, including gas, parking and tolls. On the 2026-27 map and grid, no housing is provided at sites within commuting distance of Philadelphia, or for students based all year at a regional campus. Rotating students, meaning those who move between sites rather than staying at one campus, are housed if assigned to a regional campus for 12 or fewer consecutive weeks, except at Kaiser and AtlantiCare.

Daily attendance is mandatory in Phases 2 and 3, and missed time has to be made up. Clinical work is capped at 80 hours a week averaged over four weeks.

Most of your choice comes in fourth year, which you schedule largely yourself through a lottery and an add/drop period. Each Pathway recommends electives, and the online Senior Elective Catalog describes each course. In 2023 the school counted over 250 electives at Drexel and its affiliates. Rotations run for two or four weeks, and the Class of 2027 could take up to 16 weeks in any one discipline, or 24 in medicine.

An away rotation is an elective outside Drexel's clinical affiliates, often at another medical school, and can help you learn about a residency program or region. You can take up to 16 weeks away, and you usually apply through the Visiting Student Learning Opportunities service run by the Association of American Medical Colleges. Required rotations cannot be done at other medical schools.

On the school's electives guide, international electives count within the 16 away weeks, last at least four weeks and need at least eight weeks' notice to the Special Electives Committee. It suggests starting to plan about a year ahead, and November 2023 slides advised allowing at least nine months. You need approval from the host, your Pathway director or advisor, that committee and the Global Health Office. The guide advises avoiding the November to January interview season and being abroad on Match Day.

Earlier options exist too. A yearlong Medical Spanish Elective runs as live virtual evening classes for first-year students, and the Medical Humanities program offers over 10 elective courses a year. A global health experience is possible in the summer between years 1 and 2, and Bridging the Gaps is a summer community health internship. In fourth year, a two-week Gross Anatomy elective lets you help teach the labs.

Scholarship is part of the core program, since every student completes the four-week Research/Scholarship clerkship in third year, using it for research, community-focused work or leadership. The school says more than half of students take part in some form of research, in areas such as cancer biology, drug discovery, infectious diseases and neuroscience.

Dual degrees let you earn a second degree alongside the MD, and most add a year between years 3 and 4. Scholars programs and shorter research options fit inside the four years.

• MD/PhD: for future physician-scientists, taking seven to eight years on average. You complete three years of medical school, then three to four years of PhD research, then the final medical year. Both degrees are awarded together. Research areas include neuroscience, cancer biology, immunology, physiology and biomedical engineering.
• MD/PhD entry: for the 2026-27 cycle you can enter directly, and the program says it will also review transfer applications from Drexel MD students in years 1 and 2.
• MD/PhD rules: you complete two to three six-week lab rotations. Policies modified in September 2023 expect a pass on Step 1 and Step 2 at the first sitting, or you may return to the MD program, subject to appeal.
• MD/MPH: with the Dornsife School of Public Health, generally five years, with a full public health year between years 3 and 4.
• MD/MBA: with the LeBow College of Business, five years. You complete 39 MBA credits over three quarters between years 3 and 4.
• MD/MS: set up in fall 2017 for students aiming at competitive residencies with a research requirement, with a year of research between years 3 and 4.
• EDGE (Educational Development and Growth Experience): up to one academic year of approved study, research, clinical or service work between years 3 and 4.
• Scholars programs: scholarly concentrations, meaning guided extra study alongside the MD, that end in graduation with distinction. Options are Medical Humanities, Women's Health and Equity, and Medical Research, which has five tracks.
• Medical Student Summer Research Fellowship: up to 50 first-year students spend six full-time weeks on a project for a $2,500 stipend, then present at Discovery Day, the college's annual research day.
• Fourth-year options: a research elective of four or eight weeks, a scholarly project with a faculty member, or a graduate certificate in a Frontiers area through another Drexel college.
• Planned three-year MD: in May 2026 the college said it is developing a three-year program, first aimed at primary care specialties such as family medicine, pediatrics and internal medicine. It aims to enroll a first cohort in 2028-29, after a 2027 entrant starts, and the four-year MD continues.

The Health Sciences Building, at 60 N. 36th Street, is the Philadelphia base. It brings together the College of Medicine, its graduate school and the College of Nursing and Health Professions. Inside are a simulation center, standardized patient exam rooms and anatomy labs. The Queen Lane campus in East Falls, the old home of years 1 and 2, now serves graduate students.

The West Reading campus is at 50 Innovation Way in Wyomissing. It has standardized patient rooms, anatomy labs and simulation labs, plus a fitness center, an Information Commons (the library), lounges, a game room and a cafe.

Each campus has a Clinical Education and Assessment Center, where exam rooms look like physicians' offices and link to control and observation rooms. Your clinical skills videos stay in a database over all four years so you can see how you improve. The Virtual Microscope puts digitized histology and pathology slides online. All entering students must own an iPad and a desktop or laptop computer.

You join one of seven learning societies when you enroll. These learning communities are named after local landmarks: Athenaeum, Liberty Bell, Physick House, Rocky Statue, Reading Terminal, Eakins House and Pagoda. Each has a faculty director and student representatives, and faculty advise small groups of students in years 1 and 2. Societies run social, wellness and service events, and first-year students compete for the Dean's Cup each August.

The Big Brother/Big Sister program matches you with a second-year student. The Student Academic Support Office helps with study habits and test-taking, individually or in small groups, and offers Step 1 and Step 2 preparation resources. Through the Student Success Network, academic coaches meet students regularly to review material and prepare for exams.

The Office of Student Affairs & Career Advising works with you from the summer before year 1 and handles academic and career advising and residency applications. In fourth year you have a Pathway advisor and a yearlong Student Affairs Advising Dean. Wellness topics are part of the formal curriculum, and the college provides on-campus fitness centers and professional counseling.