The Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine MD program

OUWB describes its curriculum as vertically integrating the basic and clinical sciences. The organ-system courses that fill most of years 1 and 2 each combine one system's science with its diseases and treatment. Respiratory, for example, covers lung physiology and pathology, drug treatment, and how to run and read pulmonary function tests.

The first semester lays foundations. Biomedical Foundations of Clinical Practice (BFCP) 1 covers biochemistry, cell and molecular biology, genetics, nutrition, pharmacology and physiology, and BFCP 2 adds immunology, microbiology and pathology. These topics return in more depth in the system courses. Anatomy runs in parallel in Anatomical Foundations of Clinical Practice (AFCP) 1 and 2.

Five longitudinal courses run beside the system courses. Art and Practice of Medicine (APM) teaches clinical skills in years 1 and 2, and Medical Humanities and Clinical Bioethics (MHCB) runs through year 3. Promotion and Maintenance of Health (PMH) covers disease prevention, health promotion and population health in years 1 and 2, and PRISM and Embark last all four years.

Nutrition is threaded through all four years, and in 2024 OUWB gained a bronze curriculum certification from the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. In year 3, alongside clerkships, Interdisciplinary Studies 1 and 2 cover topics relevant across specialties through interactive lectures, small-group discussion and team-based learning.

A school policy last updated in 2020 shapes the pre-clerkship week. Scheduled teaching is capped at seven hours a day and an average of 24 hours a week over a semester. Required work outside class, such as set reading or team-based learning preparation, brings the average to no more than 30 hours a week, not counting your own study.

Teaching stays between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., with a one- to two-hour midday break, and every five-day week has at least one unscheduled afternoon. PRISM's monthly sessions fall on Tuesday afternoons in years 1 and 2 and Friday afternoons in year 3, going by the commitments it asks of mentors.

In clerkships, a policy last updated in 2018 applies the duty-hour limits that the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) sets for residents. You work at most 80 hours a week, averaged over four weeks, with one day in seven free. Shifts last no more than 24 hours, with at least eight hours off between them and no more than six night-float nights in a row.

Under an attendance policy updated in July 2026, planned absences are capped at three days in any year 3 or 4 rotation of four weeks or more, and extra days must be made up. In a four-week elective, those days can go to residency interviews or to sitting Step 2 CK, the second USMLE exam. Time off in one- and two-week rotations is discouraged.

Anatomy is taught in AFCP 1 and 2, two nine-week courses that fill the first semester of year 1 alongside BFCP. AFCP 1 covers the back, upper limb, thorax and abdomen, and AFCP 2 the pelvis, perineum and lower limb, through integrated lectures and cadaveric dissection labs. Both apply the anatomy to clinical scenarios and introduce radiologic imaging.

AFCP also covers surface landmarks, embryology up to organ formation, and histology, the microscopic structure of tissues. Neuroanatomy comes in Neuroscience 1 and 2. You work with classmates on an assigned donor, and course objectives ask you to keep confidentiality, take part in donor care and handle specimens with dignity.

The lab, on the third floor of the Hannah Hall of Science, opened in 2013 and has more than 30 down-draft tables, each with a donor, plus a room for advanced dissection. In 2025-26 OUWB students worked with 22 donors, 20 from the University of Toledo and two from OUWB's own Body Donation Program. Oakland University's physical therapy program, which shares the lab, used 11 more.

In June 2026, three students who had just finished year 1 prosected a donor through the Clinical Anatomy Summer Internship, dissecting it in advance as a reference for the incoming class. They also recorded one-minute video tutorials on single structures. An annual Anatomy Memorial honors the donors; at the May 2026 ceremony, families of donors from OUWB's program attended for the first time.

APM 1 begins in your first semester at the Clinical Skills Training & Simulation Center. With clinical faculty supervising, you practice interviewing and taking a medical and social history with standardized patients. You also learn to take vital signs and to obtain consent for, and give, a flu vaccine.

APM 2 adds physical examination, system by system, and ends with an OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Examination), a circuit of timed stations at which examiners score specific skills. In the second semester, Clinical Integration 1 places you in physicians' offices and multidisciplinary settings to interview and examine patients, present a verbal summary and write a brief progress note.

Clinical Integration 2 continues in the first semester of year 2. APM 3 and 4 add bedside case presentations and clinical reasoning. APM 5, the last course before clerkships, covers hospital and clinic routines, records, patient safety, life support, leading a resuscitation team and breaking bad news. APM also includes teaching a Michigan Model for Health lesson at a local elementary school.

In the fall of year 1 you can apply for paid internships at Corewell Health hospitals in Royal Oak and Troy, held in the June after year 1. In 2026 nearly 40 students took part, from about 200 applications.

Under grading policies last revised in 2022 and 2023, pre-clerkship courses are graded against set standards, not on a curve. Each uses either P1, P2 and Fail or Honors, P1, P2 and Fail, as approved by the Curriculum Committee and stated in the syllabus. P1 is a pass on the first attempt and P2 a pass after a retest. The longitudinal courses use the same scales.

P1 needs 70% overall, a 70% average on high-stakes exams and at least 60% on each; Honors starts at 90% and can carry an attendance requirement. You may retest only with at least a 60% average on high-stakes exams. Exams are written, with multiple-choice, short-answer or essay questions, or practical, testing knowledge of specimens or images of them.

Under a 2019 policy, required courses and clerkships give formal feedback by their midpoint, in time to improve; those under four weeks offer other ways to check your progress. Retest weeks follow each semester, and failed courses can be repeated over the summer to stay with your class. Failing more than two fall courses, or both parts of AFCP or of BFCP, stops you moving on to the winter semester.

Clerkship grades, under a 2022 policy, combine an OSCE, a Clinical Performance Evaluation and a National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) shelf exam, a multiple-choice test in the specialty. Honors needs a first-time OSCE pass, a performance rating above expectations and a shelf score at or above the 80th percentile; below that come High Pass, P1, P2 and Fail. Electives are graded Honors, P1 or Fail. The school also ranks students in quartiles by academic performance for the Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE), the letter sent with residency applications.

USMLE Step 1, on the science behind medicine, has been reported only as pass or fail since January 26, 2022; Step 2 CK, on clinical knowledge, still has a three-digit score. Under OUWB's progress policy, updated June 15, 2026, you must take Step 1 before APM 5 starts, with an exception period to June 30, and cannot start clerkships until you have. Step 2 CK is due by December 31 of year 4. To graduate you must pass both exams, complete the Embark capstone and finish within six years.

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 entering in 2027 would sit Step 1 in spring 2029, at the end of year 2. Step 2 CK would fall between spring 2030, when year 3 ends, and December 31, 2030, so both come after the switch. These are projections from the current calendar and policies, not published dates.

• If you have not sat Step 1 by June 30, you join a Directed Independent Study of at least eight weeks, up to the whole fall of year 3, noted in your MSPE.
• Sitting Step 1 during APM 5 brings a formal reprimand, recorded in your MSPE as unprofessional behavior.
• Fail Step 1 after starting a clerkship and you finish it, but cannot start another until you retake the exam, which you must do by November 15. You must pass Step 1 within 12 months of finishing year 2.
• OUWB's graduation standards require a summative Gateway OSCE and list its 2016 clinical skills assessment policy as related. Under that policy, the end-of-year OSCE comes within four to eight weeks of your last year 3 clerkship and must be passed to graduate. Its standardized patient cases come from the year 3 disciplines, each followed by a written note.

OUWB names three Corewell Health hospitals in southeast Michigan where its students train: Corewell Health William Beaumont University Hospital in Royal Oak, Corewell Health Beaumont Troy Hospital and Corewell Health Beaumont Grosse Pointe Hospital. In March 2021 Oakland University and William Beaumont Hospitals extended their affiliation through 2041. Beaumont is now Corewell Health, and the student handbook names the partner as Corewell Health East.

All required clerkships are done at OUWB. The 2026-27 course catalog lists seven of the eight year 3 clerkships at the Royal Oak hospital and family medicine at Troy. For year 4 it lists emergency medicine at Royal Oak and the family medicine sub-internship at Grosse Pointe and Troy.

Electives spread a little wider: some at Troy, and others at outpatient sites such as Beaumont Medical Center in St. Clair Shores and the Corewell Health Weight Control Center. One inpatient internal medicine elective is at the John D. Dingell VA Medical Center, where you are assigned your own patients and learn illness patterns specific to veterans.

The year 3 schedule on the curriculum page is labeled an example. Your year 4 schedule comes from a lottery in the winter of year 3, after the school reviews your proposed plan, and later changes need an add/drop request at least 30 days ahead.

Year 3 has one two-week elective on the sample schedule. The 2026-27 catalog lists options in diagnostic and interventional radiology, radiation oncology, neurosurgery, physical medicine and rehabilitation, dermatology, and anatomic and clinical pathology.

Year 4 requires 16 weeks of electives, at least 12 of them clinical, meaning at least half the time in patient care. No more than 12 weeks in one specialty count, and up to four weeks can be non-clinical, such as research, basic science or virtual electives. Electives are credited in two- or four-week blocks, and paid externships cannot count.

OUWB's catalog ranges from a medical intensive care elective to a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) elective in which you function as an intern. Others include a student chief role teaching year 3 students on internal medicine, Medical Spanish with Spanish-speaking standardized patients and families, Lifestyle Medicine and a two-week Transition to Residency course. Integrated Clinical Anatomy offers four to six self-directed dissections tailored to your intended specialty.

A 2018 policy also lets you design your own elective. A directed research elective runs four weeks of at least 40 hours a week and cannot reuse Embark work. Clinical and non-clinical versions run two or four weeks, and only at OUWB. Proposals are due at least five weeks before the start.

Away electives at other schools or teaching hospitals are arranged through the Visiting Student Learning Opportunities (VSLO) system of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), or directly with the host. Domestic ones must be at LCME- or ACGME-accredited institutions with an OUWB affiliation agreement, and you file OUWB's application at least three months ahead. There is no limit on away weeks.

International away electives need an application to the Global Health Directors at least four months ahead, and stipends help with costs. Through Child Family Health International, OUWB students have gone to countries including Mexico, India, Taiwan and Ghana. One student presenting in May 2026 had spent four weeks at Princess Marie Louise Children's Hospital in Accra. Separately, the Holocaust and Medicine program runs an annual Study Trip to Auschwitz, which took 20 students in 2026.

Embark is OUWB's required scholarly concentration, a four-year research program. Structured coursework in research design, compliance, communication and presentation comes with protected time for a mentored project, which can be clinical or basic science research, medical education, community engagement or the humanities. Completing and presenting the capstone project is a graduation requirement.

Your mentor can come from OUWB, Oakland University or Corewell Health. Many students aim to finish collecting data by the end of year 2, and year 3 builds in protected time, including a focused research week. Year 4 ends with a poster at the Embark Capstone Colloquium.

Third-year students can enter a mini-manuscript competition for partial year 4 scholarships, and travel funds can help you present at meetings. Research outside Embark must be registered with the school before it starts, under a September 2026 policy. To count as OUWB research, it needs an OUWB faculty mentor or co-mentor who is also a co-author.

The MD/MPH dual degree is offered with Oakland University's School of Health Sciences. You apply during year 1, then take a leave from the MD between years 2 and 3 for core public health courses, from epidemiology and biostatistics to health policy, ending with a capstone. Completing both degrees takes five years.

OUWB's research focus areas are clinical bioethics and medical humanism; medical education; neurosciences, neurotoxicology and neurodegeneration; population health, community health and health equity; and vision science and ophthalmology.

OUWB is based in O'Dowd Hall at the center of Oakland University's 1,441-acre campus, with a medical student lounge, lockers and breakout rooms. The school occupies all of two floors of the five-story building and parts of the rest, and a grand reopening on July 12, 2024 marked the end of a $9.7 million renovation and addition. The OUWB Medical Library, in Kresge Library, has group and individual study rooms and a silent room with 30 carrels.

The Clinical Skills Training & Simulation Center at Corewell Health Beaumont Troy Hospital is used in all four years. It occupies the former Beaumont Troy Family Medicine clinic and is laid out like one, with 16 exam rooms equipped with video cameras and computer workstations. A Harvey cardiovascular mannequin can be programmed to reproduce the examination findings of many conditions.

At the Royal Oak hospital, the Simulation Learning Institute hosts curriculum sessions and student-run skills nights. In 2026 students practiced airway management and central lines at an anesthesiology skills night, and forceps deliveries at a birthing simulation.

PRISM (Promoting Reflection and Individual growth through Support and Mentoring) is a required course in every year. Each month brings a session on professional identity, a reflection assignment and a meeting of your mentor group, facilitated by a Corewell Health physician on the OUWB faculty, plus a yearly one-on-one meeting. Each class has six or seven mentors, some of them OUWB graduates.

Sample PRISM topics include imposter syndrome, preparing for Step 1, the business of medicine and alternative careers. Career guidance builds from year 1 to the residency match, and mentors join the White Coat Ceremony and Match Day and hood their students at commencement. New students also get partners through the Big Sib/Little Sib program; in 2026 they learned who their partners were on the first day of orientation.

The Academic Success Team offers an online toolkit before you arrive, then workshops and one-on-one coaching for all four years, including Step 1 preparation in year 2 and Step 2 in year 3. Peer tutoring, at no extra cost, runs weekly reviews and clinical skills practice. Career advisers run workshops mapped to the AAMC's Careers in Medicine model.

Two embedded mental health counselors offer confidential counseling, workshops and support groups at no extra cost, separate from school records and residency evaluations. An optional Early Alert text service checks in weekly. Compass, the community engagement center, runs service days and links students with programs such as Street Medicine Oakland, a student-led group serving people experiencing homelessness.