The Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University MD program

The school describes JeffMD as inquiry-based and integrated. Basic science, clinical science and health systems science, the study of how care is delivered and improved, are taught together. Subjects such as anatomy, pathology, pharmacology and physiology run through the four years as threads, not as separate courses, building in breadth and complexity over the three phases.

Phase 1 focuses on small-group case-based learning, with less time in the lecture hall. The weekly case gives clinical context to the science, and lectures, labs and clinical skills sessions support it. Cases grow more complex as you progress, so earlier learning comes back and is built on.

Phase 2 shifts the balance toward clinical work, but science continues, tied to the patients you see. Clerkships are paired, such as family medicine with psychiatry, so you can see how care overlaps between specialties. Every six weeks all students return to the main campus for Dimensions of Clinical Medicine.

Phase 3 is shaped around your career plans. A school graphic shows four pathways: internal medicine; surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, and emergency medicine; pediatrics; and family medicine. You are encouraged to declare a specialty interest before this phase, but undecided students can choose electives by the skills they want to strengthen, and you can change direction.

Handbook policies limit the Phase 1 workload. Required in-class activities should average no more than 30 hours a week over the academic year, and required out-of-class work, such as case preparation, no more than 10 hours. Courses must also leave, on average, four two-hour blocks free of scheduled teaching in each five-day week.

The school's sample weeks, posted in 2023, show how that can look. In an early year 1 week, case-based learning runs from 8:00 to 10:00 on Tuesday and Thursday. An anatomy lab follows on Tuesday and a histopathology lab on Thursday. Monday and Wednesday mornings are lectures, and Monday afternoon is clinical skills. Friday opens with a weekly quiz and review, and Tuesday and Friday afternoons are for self-directed learning.

A sample year 2 week on the musculoskeletal system has case-based learning on Monday and Wednesday mornings. Tuesday and Thursday mornings bring lectures on back pain, opioids and the anatomy of the hip, knee and foot, and Thursday afternoon is a four-hour dissection lab. Monday, Tuesday and Friday afternoons are for self-directed learning.

In Phase 1, attendance is required at case-based learning, clinical skills, Clinical Experience, sessions with a patient present, and assessments. In Phase 2, more than one day of absence must be made up on a clerkship of four weeks or less, and more than two days on one of six weeks or longer. More than seven days across the phase must also be made up, sometimes during a break.

On clerkships, duty hours cover patient care, in-hospital call and scheduled teaching. They are capped at 80 a week averaged over four weeks, with one day in seven free on average. A single stretch on site cannot exceed 24 hours, and you get at least 8 hours off between work periods and 14 hours off after 24 hours of in-house call. You may be expected to report on Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day.

You learn anatomy through hands-on dissection. Gross and microscopic anatomy and embryology are built into the Phase 1 organ-system blocks, with dissection labs running for one to two weeks at a time. The labs follow the systems you are studying: dissection of the thorax, including the heart and lungs, is tied to the teaching on those organs.

Labs take place in the Dissection Facility in Jefferson Alumni Hall, which has six dissection rooms and an in-house embalming suite. Each table has two each of scalpel handles, probes, forceps and scissors, and you wear scrubs, closed shoes and safety glasses. Across the university programs it serves, the Division of Anatomy Education also uses instructor-guided prosections, which are specimens already dissected for study, and self-paced interactive modules.

Block exams can include an anatomy practical. Anatomy can also return later, since Phase 3 offers two-week Anatomy and Pathology courses on the thorax, abdomen, pelvis and perineum, head and neck, and musculoskeletal system.

Contact with patients starts soon after you enroll, at a level that suits a new student. In Clinical Experience, you screen patients for social determinants of health, the conditions in which people are born, grow, work and age. Supervised by a community health worker, you link their needs to community resources. Each shift ends with a reflection. You might find out what worries a patient most, what support they have at home and what they believe about their health.

A chart from the Jefferson Center for Interprofessional Education (JCIPE) shows how Medicine meets the university's requirements for learning with other health professions: virtual modules, the Health Mentors Program and Team SAFE. Team SAFE is a simulation program on teamwork and speaking up about patient safety. Health Mentors are volunteers with chronic conditions. A group of 4 to 6 Jefferson students meets one three times over 1.5 years, including a home visit in the spring of year 1.

Over 200 medical students a year also volunteer at JeffHOPE, a student-run network formed in 1991. It holds free weekly clinics at four homeless shelters and one drop-in center in Philadelphia. Other volunteer clinics include a free acute care clinic that Refugee Health Partners runs with the Bhutanese American Organization of Philadelphia on the first Saturday of each month. Students also volunteer at the free Chinatown Clinic on Wednesday evenings at Holy Redeemer Chinese Catholic Church.

Responsibility grows through the phases. In clinical settings, Phase 1 students can take a history and perform a physical exam with a faculty member immediately available, then review it with them right away. In Phases 2 and 3 you take part in managing patients. You perform basic procedures, such as phlebotomy or placing a nasogastric tube, only after being taught them and only under direct supervision.

JeffMD is competency-based, so you move on because you have shown the required competencies, not just because you have put in the time. All Phase 1 courses are pass/fail. Failing any assessment component of a Foundations of Medicine course fails the whole course, although remediation may be approved. You sit multiple-choice block exams, some with an anatomy practical, plus clinical skills exams and quizzes.

Your block exam scores still matter. The class position in your Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE), the summary used in residency applications, averages two scores: the mean of your block exams and a Phase 2 clinical score. It is reported as top, middle or lower third, with a note for the top 10%, and it stays off your transcript.

Phase 2 clerkships are graded Honors, High Pass, Pass or Fail. All core clerkships use a National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) subject exam, or shelf exam, at the end of the rotation. It counts for 20% of the grade, and you must pass it to pass the clerkship. Where a clerkship uses a summative OSCE, that counts for 10%. Professionalism counts for 5%, all or nothing, and course directors set the rest, including the clinical component.

In Phase 3, all four-week clinical courses use the same four tiers. Research, Advanced Basic Science, Gateway to Internship, Scholarly Inquiry and all two-week courses are pass/fail, and you can take at most 16 weeks of pass/fail courses.

Step 1 covers the sciences basic to medicine and has been reported only as pass or fail for exams taken on or after January 26, 2022. Step 2 CK is reported with a numeric score. Students in LCME-accredited MD programs are eligible to sit both. You become eligible for Step 2 CK after completing all Phase 2 requirements, and you need a pass to graduate. A take-home self-assessment helps you prepare.

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 2027 entrant would sit Step 1 at about February to April 2029, within a few months after the switch. You would become eligible for Step 2 CK only after Phase 2 ends, about April 2030, so it also falls after the switch.

• These dates are worked out from the school's 2026-27 and 2027-28 calendars. The USMLE program has asked schools to review policies tied to exam timing, so the timing may change.
• The USMLE program's FAQs list 17 Step 1 and 14 Step 2 CK administrations in 2029.
• A first shelf exam failure gives a temporary Conditional Pass and, with permission, a retake. A second failure fails the clerkship. Make-up shelf exams run during fall, winter and spring breaks. If three are outstanding, you stop clerkships until you pass at least two.
• After a failed Step exam, the Committee on Student Promotions can allow a retake or dismiss you. A third failure of either exam means dismissal. If a Step 1 failure is reported after you have started a clerkship, you can finish its clinical work, then pause Phase 2 for a four-week preparation course.
• In required courses and clerkships of four weeks or more, you get formative feedback, meaning feedback that does not count toward a grade, by at least the midpoint.
• You are expected to finish within six years, including approved leaves, or 12 years on the MD/PhD.

Your main clinical base is Thomas Jefferson University Hospital at 111 South 11th Street in Center City. The school's prospectus says training is directed by faculty there and at sites in suburban Philadelphia; northeastern, central and western Pennsylvania; Delaware; and New Jersey. Most sites are within 60 miles of the Center City campus, and you reach them by car or public transportation. Jefferson Health, the university's health system, includes 33 hospitals, the prospectus says.

The Internal Medicine clerkship is generally four weeks at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and four at an academic affiliate. Other clerkships run at the hospital and its affiliates on the published Clinical Training Sites list, grouped below. Family medicine uses locations across the tri-state area, plus community sites and subspecialty clinics.

The Registrar's Office assigns sites by lottery, using your preferences, disability accommodations and approved special-circumstances requests. In Phase 2 you can swap sites with a classmate in the same clerkship and block during a set period, up to six weeks before the rotation. After that, a change needs extenuating circumstances. Phase 3 has no swap period, and changes go through add/drop, which closes six weeks before each block.

The Lehigh Valley Clinical Immersion takes up to 48 students about to start Phase 2, who complete most of their clerkships at Cedar Crest or Muhlenberg. You apply in the fall and need a car; if not chosen, you go into the general scheduling lottery. This option is separate from the four-year Lehigh Valley campus the school announced in July 2026. Based at One Center Square in Allentown, that campus will teach JeffMD, with clinical training across Jefferson Health - Lehigh Valley Region.

ChristianaCare runs a Delaware Branch Campus for SKMC and Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine students. ChristianaCare says they can do all their third-year core rotations, and some fourth-year ones, at its Delaware hospitals, and that over 100 have graduated from the program in the last eight years. This is separate from the four-year Delaware campus the school announced in June 2026. Pending LCME approval, that campus will teach JeffMD: the first two years at the University of Delaware in Newark, then clinical training statewide, with priority on Kent and Sussex counties.

PSAP students must take at least one required Phase 2 clerkship in a smaller community. Current sites include Excela Latrobe Hospital for family medicine and WellSpan York Hospital for internal medicine, general surgery or obstetrics and gynecology. The August 2026 prospectus also lists family medicine at York. PSAP is also piloting a longitudinal curriculum, in which clerkship subjects run together instead of in separate blocks. It covers the six Phase 2 clinical rotations with Atlantic Health System, at rural and suburban sites in New Jersey.

You must complete at least 28 weeks of electives to graduate. They run for two or four weeks. You can pick from the SKMC catalog, which has close to 200 Phase 3 entries, or from the catalogs of other LCME-accredited medical schools. You can also design an independent elective with a faculty mentor.

Sub-internships run in fields such as neurosurgery, psychiatry and radiation oncology. Other options include Point-of-Care Ultrasound, Wilderness and Environmental Medicine, Introduction to Correctional Medicine, Homeless Care Continuum and Immigrant Health. Some courses are online. Research and four-week online courses are each capped at eight weeks.

A few electives take you beyond Center City. Outpatient Community Experience in Family Medicine places you with a rural physician in Lancaster, Palmyra or Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, and you cover your own transportation and housing. Rural Community Pediatrics runs in southern Delaware with accommodations provided, and Health Inequities in Pediatric Medicine is based at a Nemours clinic in Wilmington, Delaware.

An away rotation is an elective at another school or hospital. The catalog allows up to three in the same department. The university's study away office says SKMC students can do a fourth-year rotation at healthcare institutions around the world.

Students with advanced Spanish can join the four-year Medical Spanish Program. It includes a five-month first-year course and shadowing at Puentes de Salud and the Jefferson Latina Women's Health Clinic. Selected students can take a four-week immersion at CES University in Medellin, Colombia, after year 1. In year 4 you can return for a clinical elective.

Scholarly Inquiry is a required scholarly concentration. You choose from seven tracks: Clinical and Translational Research, Design, Digital Health, Health Policy and Systems, Humanities, Medical Education, and Population Health Research. Design is based in the Jefferson Health Design Lab, and Digital Health at Jefferson's Center for Digital Health. You can switch tracks at certain points.

A June 2026 school feature says Scholarly Inquiry has its own department, and that a platform called ForagerOne helps you find mentors. It also says the Class of 2026 co-authored 332 manuscripts, and that students can receive $2,000 summer stipends between years 1 and 2.

The MD/PhD typically takes eight years. You complete Phase 1 and Step 1, with research rotations before or during vacations, then choose a thesis mentor and PhD program in the Jefferson College of Life Sciences. The PhD usually takes up to four years, with a possible fifth, and you must defend your thesis before returning for Phases 2 and 3.

The MD/MPH runs with the Jefferson College of Population Health. You usually complete two Phase 3 rotations, study for the Master of Public Health from September to June, return in July and receive both degrees the following May. Accepted students can instead defer their medical school start by a year to complete the MPH.

The MHA/MD adds a dedicated year between years 3 and 4 for an accelerated Master of Healthcare Administration, making five years in all. You complete 38 credits of online coursework, including a practicum using Lean Six Sigma, a set of methods for improving how processes work, and 12 more come from the SKMC curriculum. The prospectus also lists a five-year MD/MBA-MHA with Widener University and an MD/MBA with the University of Delaware, and the Handbook says the MBA portion typically takes one year.

For a research year, you request a leave of absence from the Committee on Student Promotions. It is generally limited to one year, and work done on leave does not count toward graduation. Two undergraduate links also feed the MD: the seven-year Penn State Accelerated BS/MD and the eight-year University of Delaware Medical Scholars Program.

• Year 1: choose a track, take common and track-based sessions, then propose an individual or group project and start work.
• Summer after year 1: optional extra research time.
• Year 2: complete the project and present it as a poster, oral presentation and abstract.
• Phase 2: propose a research project from what you see on rotations, with more limited mentor support, and learn to present your work in writing.
• Phase 3: choose scholarly selectives such as seminars, journal clubs and manuscript reviews, and practice a short pitch of your work for residency applications.

The Rector Clinical Skills & Simulation Center fills three floors of the Dorrance Hamilton Building. Its 20 clinical exam rooms have audio and video recording, and the center's equipment includes Sim-man and Harvey simulators and models for practicing procedures. The rooms allow two major OSCEs to run at once.

Scott Memorial Library is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with study space on the first four floors of the Scott Building. Every student is issued an iPad during orientation. Campus housing is in Barringer, Martin and Orlowitz Halls.

When you enroll you are assigned a dean in the Office of Student Affairs & Career Counseling, who stays your academic and career advisor throughout medical school. You are also sorted into one of four Learning Societies, learning communities that build long-term relationships and peer support.

For academic help, you can work with the Director of Academic Support Services or peer tutors from the school's honor societies. For clinical skills, there is a Director of Clinical Proficiency Remediation. The Student Counseling Center offers free, confidential personal counseling.

Career planning runs through all four years. Phase 1 offers specialty interest groups and shadowing, Dimensions of Clinical Medicine includes a career curriculum, and specialty advisors help you plan your final year. MD Compass is a student-driven career program alongside this.

JeffBEACON is a four-year program for students committed to underserved communities. It grew out of the Urban Underserved Program, begun in 2001, and runs with the Department of Family & Community Medicine and the Jefferson Community Health Collaborative. You apply in the fall of year 1, and it offers community outreach, leadership training and customized clerkship scheduling.