The GWU School of Medicine MD program

The preclinical phase opens with Foundations of Medicine, on core basic science principles and basic clinical skills. Organ-system blocks follow across the fall and spring of year 1 and the fall of year 2, each weaving together gross and microscopic anatomy, biochemistry and genetics, physiology, pathology, pharmacology and microbiology.

The school lists active learning in place of traditional large-class lectures as a feature of the curriculum, and content is often taught in small groups using cases. Its narrative assessment policy (reviewed November 2022) puts the integrated case-based sessions in the blocks at about 30 students per group. Practice of Medicine and Patients, Populations, and Systems (PPS) use groups of 12 or fewer with the same facilitators.

Practice of Medicine 1, 2 and 3 run alongside the blocks, meeting at least weekly in small groups with clinical faculty. The three PPS courses cover public health, population health, health policy and health systems. Both link their sessions to the block topics.

Five themes run through all four years: Climate Change and Health; Ethics and Professional Behavior; Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion; Human Behavior and Development Across the Life Span; and Medical Humanities. In the clinical years, one-week Intersessions bring the class back together to reinforce basic science, clinical public health and the themes.

In the preclinical phase an average day starts at 8 or 9 a.m. and has scheduled activities until 4 or 5 p.m., with a lunch break. About once a month there is also an evening physical diagnosis session, typically 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. Each week includes three half-days for independent study and self-directed learning.

Roughly one half-day a week rotates among Practice of Medicine small-group activities. A typical week also includes small-group Clinical Integration Sessions and about two hours of PPS.

Under the workload policy (October 2022, revised June 2023), required instruction, including online modules, averages 28 to 35 hours a week and should not exceed 35. The independent study half-days add 10 to 12 hours.

Attendance is expected at all sessions and required in person at patient and guest panels, Practice of Medicine and PPS small groups, designated labs and exams (policy revised June 2026). Every incoming first-year student receives an iPad, and block exams are taken on iPads.

Anatomy has no stand-alone course. It is integrated into the organ-system blocks, so cardiac anatomy, for example, is taught in the Cardiovascular, Pulmonary, and Renal/Urinary Organ Systems block, using a combination of dissection, prosection or simulation. A prosection is a specimen dissected in advance to display the anatomy.

The Gross Anatomy Laboratory, on the second floor of Ross Hall, covers about 4,800 square feet with room for 200 people. Medical students use it in the fall and spring alongside graduate, undergraduate and physical therapy students. It has 41 dissecting cadaver tanks, a walk-in cold storage room and a newly installed 12-body locker for prosections.

The lab also has more than 40 iPads, virtual reality equipment, skeletons, 3-D models and radiographs. Among clinical-year electives, a two-week Anatomy Review for Residency is open to students who have identified a career path.

Your first patient encounters are simulated. From year 1, Practice of Medicine interview sessions have you take histories from standardized patients, who in the Clinical Learning and Simulation Skills (CLASS) Center also assess you against a faculty checklist. Encounters can be watched through one-way mirrors and recorded, so faculty can give feedback and you can review your performance.

Practice of Medicine also includes CAP, and the school's assessment policy names CAP preceptors among your instructors. A 2023 guide written by students and hosted by the school expands CAP as the Clinical Apprenticeship Program. It says each student is assigned a physician preceptor at the start of the first semester, then spends time in that doctor's clinical setting through the preclinical years. CAP sessions are required, with written feedback each semester.

Other programs add contact with patients and communities. ISCOPES, a service-learning program, puts first-year medical students on interprofessional teams for health promotion projects. Students also run the GW Healing Clinic, including the Bridge to Care free clinic in Seat Pleasant, Maryland, one evening a week. Rising second-year students can apply for observation-only summer shadowing.

Preclinical courses are graded Pass, Conditional or Fail. A Conditional (CN) means you missed the standard but should reach it with limited remedial work. A CN from an exam becomes a Pass if you pass the exam at the second attempt. Your record still notes the first attempt, and your Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE), the dean's summary for residency applications, will say you remediated coursework.

Blocks set exams and some quizzes, and each ends with a customized National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) subject exam that uses actual board questions and covers the whole block. Practice of Medicine adds performance-based exams of clinical skills.

Required clerkships are graded Honors, High Pass, Pass, Conditional or Fail; Foundations of Clinical Practice, the Intersessions and Transition to Residency are Pass, Conditional or Fail. Clerkship grades combine evaluations from residents and attending physicians with NBME subject exams, known as shelf exams. Some clerkships add in-house written exams, standardized patient exams or OSCEs.

Fail a core clerkship's shelf exam at the first attempt and you receive a CN; passing at the second attempt turns it into a Pass, never High Pass or Honors. Supervising faculty give you feedback midway through each clerkship. Your MSPE gives one of five summary adjectives, from outstanding to satisfactory, based only on your seven core clerkship grades.

To graduate you must pass all required coursework, USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 Clinical Knowledge (CK), and the End-of-Third Year Clinical Skills Assessment (CSA), within seven years. The USMLE is the exam series used for medical licensure in the United States. Step 1 covers the sciences basic to medicine and has been reported only as pass or fail since January 26, 2022. Step 2 CK, which still gives a score, tests clinical knowledge applied to patient care. Failing either exam twice puts you at risk of dismissal.

GW expects you to take Step 1 after the preclinical courses and before Foundations of Clinical Practice, and passing it is required for promotion to the clinical phase. Under its USMLE policy, an approved extension or a failure allows only two later windows: a third-year elective period registered as independent study, or after year 3 and by July 1. Step 2 CK must be taken by December 31 of year 4 and passed before graduation. The advising office's guide for the Class of 2027 says November 1, so check your class's date.

• On the current schedule, a student starting in summer 2027 would finish the preclinical courses in early February 2029 and take Step 1 in a study period running to about early April. Clerkships would start in early May 2029, and Step 2 CK would be due by December 31, 2030, before graduation in May 2031.
• 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 notice had named 2028. For a 2027 entrant, both Step 1 and Step 2 CK would fall after the change.
• For MD students, enrollment in an LCME-accredited program is what makes you eligible for Step 1 and Step 2 CK; DO students and students at international schools qualify through other routes.

On the main campus, your clinical years are spent at George Washington University Hospital and affiliated hospitals, including, the school says, the area's large military hospitals and facilities. Its undated affiliated-hospitals page gives only a partial, representative list. In the 2026-27 catalog, internal medicine is two 4-week blocks at GW Hospital, the DC Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center, Sinai Hospital or Anne Arundel Medical Center. At least 4 weeks must be at GW Hospital or the VA.

Psychiatry uses the four internal medicine hospitals plus St. Elizabeth's Hospital, Children's National, the Martinsburg VA, the Northern Virginia Mental Health Institute and the Psychiatric Institute of Washington. Obstetrics and gynecology is 3 outpatient weeks at GW Medical Faculty Associates clinics or community sites and 3 inpatient weeks at GW Hospital, Anne Arundel, Inova Alexandria Hospital, Holy Cross Hospital or Sinai. Adult emergency medicine (EMED 302) is in GW Hospital's emergency department, a Level I trauma center, and pediatric emergency medicine (PED 405) in the emergency department at Children's National.

In the school's December 2023 clerkship descriptions, pediatrics combines four inpatient weeks at Children's National or Sinai with three outpatient weeks and a newborn nursery week at GW Hospital or Holy Cross. In the same document, surgery is two four-week stints on general surgical teams at GW Hospital, Children's National, the VA, Sinai or Anne Arundel.

A multi-round lottery from January to March of year 2 sets your clerkship cohort, order and sites; neuroscience sites have their own lottery. You arrange your own transportation (site policy revised November 2022), though a weekday shuttle links GW and Children's National (schedule as of January 2024). You can petition for another site for reasons such as a supervising physician having treated you. Core clerkships must stay within the GW system and its direct affiliates.

The Regional Medical Campus (RMC) at LifeBridge Health, based at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, opened in April 2023 and takes up to 30 students a year. Since August 2024, new students have been admitted to one campus or the other. Regional students spend their first 18 months in Washington, then take all required third- and fourth-year clerkships at Sinai, a single site, unlike the main campus. The curriculum, assessments, grading and degree are the same.

Campus assignment follows the preference you give when applying, RMC-only, RMC-preferred, main campus-only or main campus-preferred, with a lottery if interest exceeds places. You are expected to finish at your assigned campus, but after starting you can petition to switch for a compelling reason if a place is open (policy revised March 2023, reviewed November 2025). Regional students can take electives elsewhere and get Baltimore housing information at least six months ahead. The campus has its own course catalog, including acting internships in medicine, pediatrics, trauma surgery and intensive care at Sinai.

You need at least 26 weeks of electives across years 3 and 4: up to 8 in the clerkship year and normally 18 in year 4. No more than 12 weeks in any one specialty count. Third-year electives are for exploring specialties, building skills, research or time off, and their grades do not count toward your MSPE adjective.

Up to 14 weeks of independent study across years 3 and 4 is separate, for Step 2 CK preparation, interviews, vacation or making up missed time. Many electives come in 2- or 4-week versions, and many have prerequisites.

The 2026-27 catalog goes beyond hospital specialties, with options such as Wilderness Medicine, Point-of-care Ultrasound, Culinary Medicine, Medical Spanish, Artificial Intelligence Applications in Healthcare and Hospital Administration. Introduction to Correctional Medicine is based at District of Columbia Department of Corrections facilities. In the Community Health Healing Clinic elective, fourth-year students work 12 shifts at the student-run clinic and teach preclinical students.

Away rotations, also called audition rotations, are electives at other institutions, open once you have passed all core clerkships. You apply through Visiting Student Learning Opportunities (VSLO), a service of the Association of American Medical Colleges, or directly, with approval from the matching GW course director. Hosts outside VSLO need an affiliation agreement, which takes 3 to 6 months and is not guaranteed.

The Office of International Medicine Programs (IMP), with about 120 partnerships in more than 45 countries, offers international clinical electives of 2 to 8 weeks after the core clerkships. Most students take four weeks in a clinical specialty at a teaching hospital abroad, alongside local students; others join medical or surgical missions or international research.

IMP nominates you to partner sites, first come first served, and the host makes the final decision. Current partners include the University of Ghana, Nippon Medical School in Tokyo, Seoul National University, Universidad San Francisco de Quito and the American University of Beirut.

Every MD student completes a scholarly project before graduation, as part of Intersession IV. The research concentration lists ways to meet it, such as a Research Day poster, a systematic review with a Himmelfarb librarian, a case series of at least five patients or a peer-reviewed paper. Research electives, the W.T. Gill Summer Fellowship for first-year research and Fusion, the student-led research journal, offer more.

The Scholarly Concentration Program is optional, but the school's FAQ says 98% of students choose one on average. You apply to one in the fall of year 1. The eight are Clinical and Translational Research, Clinical Practice Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Community/Urban Health, Disaster Medicine, Global Health, Health Policy, Medical Education and Leadership, and Medical Humanities. Global Health takes 25 per class, and the Class of 2031 application opens in fall 2027.

Concentration students attend lectures, typically monthly, through the fall of year 2 and complete an 8-week summer project after year 1, which can be anywhere. They propose a scholarly project in year 3 and finish it, with an elective in their area, in year 4. Global Health students spend the summer project abroad. You can withdraw without penalty, and completion appears on your transcript.

The MD/MPH, with GW's Milken Institute School of Public Health, adds one year, taken as a leave between years 3 and 4 or after year 4. You complete 30 credits in three online 10-week terms, with 15 more counted from your MD studies, plus an Applied Practice Experience and a Culminating Experience building on the Population Health Summit.

The MD/Graduate Certificate in Public Health stays within four years: four online courses in year 4, with 5 credits counted from your MD studies. The new MD/MBA takes five years: three MD years, a year from May to May in the GW School of Business Global MBA, ending with the Consulting Abroad Program, then your final MD year.

Two entry routes lead into the same MD: the eight-year 4+4 BA/BS-MD with GW's Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, for high school seniors, and Early Selection. College sophomores apply to it from GW or partner schools such as George Mason University and Morgan State University.

Ross Hall, opened in 1972 at 23rd and Eye Streets, is the center of medical student life, with its own library, cafe and student lounge. The Foggy Bottom/GWU Metro stop is immediately outside.

The CLASS Center, opened on March 1, 2014, covers more than 17,000 square feet on Ross Hall's fourth floor. It has 14 examination rooms for standardized patient encounters, two of them inpatient rooms. It also has a labor and delivery suite, two mock operating rooms, two high-fidelity simulation rooms and a procedural skills lab.

Computer-controlled manikins and task trainers are used to practice airway management, resuscitation, trauma care and obstetric management, with instructors watching and talking to you from control rooms.

At the Regional Medical Campus, Sinai Hospital's renovated and expanded simulation center runs a standardized patient program similar to the main campus, and students have a lounge, computer labs and a medical library. Regional students keep full remote access to GW's Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library.

The school's FAQ says each class is divided into four learning communities, which provide longitudinal mentoring from physicians, basic scientists and librarian mentors. Practice of Medicine's Coaching Program pairs formally trained faculty coaches with psychosocial educators for small-group and one-on-one sessions. The Big Sib program connects each incoming student with a student in the year above.

Every student is linked to a Student Affairs Dean, and the regional campus has its own assistant dean for student affairs. Career advising runs from year 1, with Roadmap to Residency sessions, specialty nights twice a year and a specialty advisor chosen in February of year 3. Learning-skills support, peer tutoring and peer coaching are also available.

For confidential help, the school's October 2023 resource list names the Office of Student Support in Ross Hall and the SMHS Resiliency and Well-Being Center. In the school's May 2026 syllabus appendix, the office's free services include one-on-one academic support, a writing coach, help with test-taking and time management, and a subscription to Talkspace, an online therapy platform. The university's Counseling and Psychological Services also has a counselor on call 24/7.

Clinical duty hours average no more than 80 a week over four weeks, with shifts capped at 30 hours and at least one day off in seven, or two in 14.