The Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University MD program

MCG's curriculum office says the 3+ redesign emphasizes case-based learning and early clinical exposure. Pre-clerkship modules come in a fixed order, each covering a body system's normal structure and function, the diseases that disrupt it and their treatment. Weekly patient cases train you to build differential diagnoses, read test results and plan management.

The weekly cases also carry ethics, professionalism, public health and value-based healthcare. Three longitudinal courses run beside the modules: Patient-Centered Learning (PCL), YOU+ and Career Paths in Medicine. Career Paths sets aside a week each semester to explore research, global health, policy, leadership or specialties.

From the clerkship year you learn mainly on clinical teams, and every student spends at least three weeks working with residents. Clerkship PCL adds simulation exercises to each six-week clerkship.

From fall 2026, MCG has committed to at least 40 hours of required nutrition teaching across the four years, or equivalent competencies, as part of a federal initiative. Topics include obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and counseling patients about their diet.

MCG's sample pre-clerkship timetable, posted in 2026, runs from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Its teaching blocks include lectures, structured active learning, a YOU+ session, a quiz, CBL small groups and a case wrap-up. One afternoon a week is a CBL small-group session and another is PCL, and much of the remaining time is self-directed learning.

An MCG policy caps assigned work in this phase at 30 hours a week plus half a day of clinical activity. These hours are averaged over each module and include required work outside class. Breaks are short: in 2026, pre-clerkship spring classes ended on June 26 and fall classes began on July 13. The dean noted in October 2026 that the 3+ curriculum removed the traditional summer break.

A February 2026 article in Jagwire, Augusta University's news site, describes anatomy at MCG. Students work in groups of four or five, sharing one donor body. Lab work includes dissection in the Musculoskeletal/Skin module, which the current schedule places in the fall of year 1.

Before the first lab, the article says, students met with a chaplain, and faculty took them through illustrations of each step. Students may name their donor and, at a student memorial ceremony, write a letter to them. MCG's gross anatomy director told Jagwire that students come to see their donor as their first patient.

Anatomy returns later. In the Clinical Anatomy and Teaching Skills elective you dissect and teach gross anatomy. Four-week electives for future surgeons, orthopedic surgeons and obstetrician-gynecologists combine cadaveric dissection with procedure practice. The obstetrics and gynecology course includes assisting in the first-year anatomy lab.

Patient contact starts in your first semester through PCL 1, which teaches interviewing and examination through standardized patients, simulation and contact with real patients. MCG's bulletin says clinical experiences begin in the first weeks of medical school. You receive your white coat at a ceremony in the fall of year 1; for the Class of 2030 it was set for October 24, 2026.

The pre-clerkship pages also link to a PCL Clinical Experience in the Center for Ultrasound Education suite. It mixes real and virtual patient encounters with procedure teaching and hands-on point-of-care ultrasound, before you step into a clinic or hospital. Credentialed pre-clerkship students can also take observerships and telemedicine coursework.

Outside the timetable, Augusta students run clinics from Clinica Latina to free dermatology, mental health and vision clinics. Every student logs at least 40 hours of community service in pre-clerkship. Full-time clerkships begin in January of year 2.

Pre-clerkship modules are graded satisfactory or unsatisfactory, which is pass/fail, and each ends with an exam. Fail a module and you take a one-week course straight afterwards and resit; if that fails too, a six-week remediation course comes before clerkships. Two or more deficiencies bring a hearing and usually a repeat of the phase.

Clerkships are letter-graded A to F, as a weighted average of faculty evaluations and an NBME shelf exam score. Your shelf score must reach the 5th percentile on one of two attempts. The first attempt comes on the clerkship's final Friday, or at set points in an LIC. The retake is in the USMLE Prep course after the clerkship year, and the better score counts.

With a C or better after the first attempt you may skip the retake; PGY-1, Dual Degree and Advanced Research students need a B. Failing both attempts brings a D and a four-week remediation course before a third try. Your Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE), the school's letter for residency applications, reports each core clerkship's clinical score and best shelf result.

The Clerkship CPA is a simulation-based assessment of residency readiness in the Advanced Clerkship phase, and you must pass it to graduate. A first failure does not count against you for promotion: a Clinical Skills Advisory Group plans remediation, and completing it counts as a pass.

The United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) is the exam series state medical boards use in licensing decisions. Step 1, on the basic sciences, has been pass/fail since January 2022; Step 2 CK tests clinical knowledge. MCG requires you to pass both to graduate, normally within three attempts each. Step 1 comes after pre-clerkship, ideally in its dedicated study time, and Step 2 CK after the clerkships and any shelf retakes, ideally right after the USMLE Prep course.

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. On the current schedule, a student entering in July 2027 would sit Step 1 in late 2028, just before the change, and Step 2 CK in early 2030, after it. This projection follows the Class of 2030 pre-clerkship schedule and the Class of 2029 clerkship calendar, the latest MCG has posted.

• MCG also lets you sit Step 1 in an elective period allocated by lottery during clerkships, or after the USMLE Prep course. For a 2027 entrant, either would fall at or after the USMLE's January 2029 switch.
• To enter the Match, the national process that places graduates in residency, you must pass Step 1 by September 1 of the year before graduating. You must also pass Step 2 CK before certifying your rank list.
• The USMLE program has asked schools to review rules that restrict when students take Step exams, so MCG's timing rules may change.
• The Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) accredits MD programs in the United States. For MD students, LCME accreditation is what makes you eligible to sit the USMLE; DO students and international graduates qualify through other routes.
• The LCME directory, updated October 14, 2026, lists MCG as fully accredited, first accredited before the LCME's founding in 1942, with its next survey in 2031-32. MCG's dean announced that full accreditation in July 2026.

You spend the 18-month pre-clerkship phase in Augusta or Savannah. The class that entered in 2026 has 304 seats, 254 in Augusta and 50 in Savannah (2025-26 bulletin; dean's blog, October 2026). MCG assigns campuses by stated preference and available space, and your first choice is not guaranteed.

Savannah students learn on Georgia Southern University's Armstrong Campus, across the street from St. Joseph's Hospital, then rotate across MCG's coastal clinical campus. In Augusta you train within Wellstar MCG Health, formed by MCG and Wellstar Health System in 2023. The bulletin says Augusta-based students may select from four regional clinical campuses, and the admissions pages note they may be assigned to one.

You learn your clinical campus by spring of the pre-clerkship phase and your clerkship sites the semester before clerkships. Changes need a health, family, academic or other extenuating reason, and moving costs are yours. Students may also swap clerkship sites with each other. Under a May 2026 policy, each clerkship's Augusta-based director oversees its content and grading at every campus.

Through the Regional Clinical Campus Admissions Pathway, applicants commit to the Northwest or Southwest campus when they apply. They spend pre-clerkship in Augusta, then transfer for the clinical phases, but cannot take the MD/MBA, which needs in-person classes in Augusta. A non-scholarship Georgia PGY-1 option is also tied to these two campuses, in internal medicine, family medicine or psychiatry.

Housing help varies. Southeast campus hospitals offer free student housing, Brunswick has on-campus housing through its health system, and Savannah students get housing support when rotating away. In Albany, Phoebe's Flaggstone apartments sit a block from Phoebe Putney. For an elective on another campus, housing is up to you, though you may ask the local Area Health Education Center (AHEC).

MCG's Statewide Campus Locations page says the Athens campus, opened with the University of Georgia in 2010, moved to the new UGA School of Medicine in 2026. The LCME lists that school with preliminary accreditation from 2026, and MCG graduates its last Athens class in 2029, so Athens is not an MCG campus for 2027 entrants.

Electives are rotations or courses you choose; selectives are required categories with a set list of options. Every student completes six weeks of electives, and four-year pathway students get two six-week elective blocks in the clerkship year, spread out in an LIC. Each elective is tagged All Students, Clerkship Plus or Enrichment Only, which sets how early you can take it.

The three four-week selectives come after the clerkship year and Step 1, on MCG campuses. Ambulatory care runs in adult, pediatric and surgery clinics, critical care through six courses from neonatal to surgical, and sub-internships from family medicine to neurosurgery. Southwest students earn four weeks of elective credit through the Southwest Leadership and Advocacy Program.

On the Residency Prep pathway, the Enrichment phase adds 28 weeks of requirements, according to MCG's Curriculum Requirements (August 2026) and Elective and Selective Credit Policy (September 2026). Those weeks include at least four weeks of scholarly project, at least four weeks of clinical electives and the four-week Integrative Science Selective. The rest is more electives or scholarly project. Some other MCG documents group the same weeks differently.

Up to 12 weeks of off-campus electives count toward graduation, four in the Advanced Clerkship phase and eight in Enrichment. Away rotations, clinical electives at other institutions, usually go through the AAMC's Visiting Student Learning Opportunities (VSLO) system. Up to four weeks can be international, with approval from the Curriculum Office, the Global Health Director and the Study Abroad Office.

The 2026-27 catalog's electives include Rural Family Medicine, Rural Emergency Medicine and Rural Outpatient Gynecology, a comparative rural health policy course on Scotland, Telemedicine, Food As Medicine and student chief roles.

Every MCG student completes a Scholarly Project, a research course taken after the pre-clerkship phase, though hours worked in any phase can count. MCG's 2025 syllabus offers a four-week self-guided project or a mentored one of four, eight or 12 weeks, with at least 160 hours of work per four weeks. Students are invited to present at Research Day, held each April and September.

The Advanced Research pathway, which you apply for in spring of year 1, adds a mentored research block to 12 weeks of Scholarly Project without lengthening the degree. From the Class of 2030, that block lasts four months, and you also take the four-week Integrative Science Selective (Curriculum Requirements, August 2026). For the Classes of 2027 to 2029 the block is five months, the length several MCG web pages and the 2026-27 catalog (20 weeks) still give.

In the Dual Degree pathway you apply after enrolling, start master's courses near the end of your first two years and finish both degrees within four. The current options are an MBA, a Master of Public Health (MPH) or an MS in Epidemiology, according to the 2026-27 catalog and the Pathway Programs page. Some older MCG pages also list a Master of Clinical and Translational Science (MCTS). The MPH is online; the MBA is taught in person in Augusta.

The application pathways (PGY-1, Dual Degree and Advanced Research) set conditions to join or stay. You need a module average of at least 75, no failed modules, Step 1 sat before clerkships and passed first time, and an A or B in every clerkship. Pathway leaders can approve exceptions.

The University System of Georgia MD/PhD Program, founded in 1995, takes up to six students a year and averages seven and a half years. After pre-clerkship and Step 1 you earn a PhD over three to four years at Augusta University, Georgia Tech, Georgia State or the University of Georgia, then return for clerkships. Pre-clerkship MD students with a research plan can apply through Flex entry.

A National Institutes of Health grant funds the PARIS and PARTY aging-research programs, supporting about 14 to 15 students a year in eight- to 12-week projects. Students taking a six-month to one-year outside fellowship stay enrolled through an Extended Self-Study elective.

In Augusta, the J. Harold Harrison, MD Education Commons houses the Curriculum Office and hosts MCG's Research Day. It also contains the SPEAR Center (Simulated Patients for Education, Assessment, and Research), Augusta University's main simulation center. The SPEAR Center offers high-fidelity simulation, standardized patients, skills labs and procedure training, and runs Augusta's Enrichment PCL sessions.

The Center for Ultrasound Education, in Pavilion 3 of the CJ Building, holds the PCL Clinical Experience suite, where students learn point-of-care ultrasound scanning. The anatomy lab is on the Health Sciences Campus, and the Greenblatt Library serves Augusta students.

Savannah students use Georgia Southern's simulation center and Lane Library, and have a dedicated medical librarian. On-campus apartments in University Crossings are within walking distance of teaching. MCG Atlanta's student space connects directly to Kennestone Hospital, with classrooms, simulation labs, call rooms, a shower and lockers. The Southwest Campus suite in Albany, across from Phoebe Putney, shares space with the UGA College of Pharmacy.

MCG assigns a student affairs dean to each phase: your first semester, the rest of pre-clerkship, the clerkship year and enrichment. A longitudinal academic advisor meets you quarterly for the first 18 months and then each semester, and a learning specialist and peer tutors are available.

In Augusta, the YOU+ learning communities are lettered A to N for the Class of 2030, each linked to a career advisor who works with you from enrollment. Savannah students join one of four communities, or academic houses, named for coastal islands: Cumberland, Tybee, Sapelo and Jekyll. They meet across all four years, including monthly over a meal.

In the clinical phase you declare a Sponsoring Department, usually your intended specialty, which advises you on residency preparation. The Office of Learner Well-being, set up in 2020, supports students, and MCG requires wellness activities each semester. Each first-year student also receives an MCG-branded stethoscope paid for by a donor, often with a handwritten note, as the dean described in July 2026.