The Quinnipiac Netter School of Medicine MD program

Teaching in Years 1 and 2 follows integrated organ-system blocks, and the three courses are linked block by block. The course pages give FOM 18 hours a week, CAS 6 and SRCC 4; the catalog puts CAS at up to 6 to 8. When you learn cardiac physiology in FOM, for example, you also learn the cardiac examination and history in CAS and practice them at your MeSH site.

FOM covers anatomy, histology, physiology, cell and molecular biology, genetics, human development, nutrition, behavioral and social science, pathology and pathophysiology. Five longitudinal themes are woven through the blocks: pharmacology, nutrition, behavioral and social sciences, biomedical ethics and epidemiology.

Year 1 mixes lectures, team-based learning and case-based small groups; in Year 2, self-directed learning grows and problem-based learning (PBL) becomes a major part of FOM II. Year 1 also opens with Coaching for Adaptive Learning, a course on managing your own learning: spotting gaps, setting goals, using feedback and balancing your time.

From Year 3, teaching moves to hospitals and practices, backed by academic half days and small-group teaching attending sessions. The 2026-27 catalog's program objectives include knowing the main types of artificial intelligence and using AI learning tools responsibly.

Much of this pre-clerkship timetable comes from a 2025 faculty recruitment page. All direct FOM teaching takes place on weekday mornings, Monday to Friday between 8 a.m. and noon, adding up to 18 hours a week.

In Year 1, FCC small groups meet on Thursdays from 8 to 10 a.m., and anatomy lab typically runs on Monday and Wednesday mornings from November to May. In Year 2, FCC moves to Thursdays from 10 a.m. to noon, and PBL groups meet on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings.

Four hours of SRCC a week fit around these sessions, along with your MeSH afternoons (see Meeting patients, below, for how often). Ethics groups take four or five Thursday afternoons, and the faculty page lists optional FCC sessions on Tuesday afternoons from August to October. Pre-clerkship sessions end 10 minutes before the hour, and under the Code of Conduct, arriving late to a required session is a violation.

Anatomy is taught in FOM I. The course pages describe dissection-based anatomy integrated across all the Year 1 organ-system blocks, and the FOM page says it runs through most of the first year. The faculty page puts lab teaching from November to May: musculoskeletal in November and December, then neuroscience and head and neck in January and February.

The thorax (lung, heart and kidney) follows in February and March, then the abdomen and pelvis in April and May. Instructors help student teams identify structures, biological variation and disease, and link them to clinical practice. Each organ-system block ends with a practical anatomy exam alongside the block's summative exam.

Bodies come through the school's Anatomical Gift Program, which accepts whole-body donations, and each year students and staff hold a Ceremony of Gratitude for donors and their families. The lab, on the third floor of the Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences building, also serves the Schools of Health Sciences and Nursing. The facilities page lists 48 prosection stations in the building; a prosection is a specimen dissected in advance for study.

Clinical skills start on campus with standardized patients (SPs), people trained to portray patients and to give consistent feedback on your history taking, examination technique and interpersonal skills. The CAS course page says one-on-one interviews with SPs begin in your first month.

Real patients come through MeSH. Students and preceptors are surveyed on their preferences in the spring before Year 1, and the school tries to give you one of your top five choices. Most preceptors practice internal medicine, family medicine or pediatrics, some in subspecialties such as cardiology or neurology. Their practices are rural, suburban and urban sites across Connecticut, including some that care for underserved communities.

At your MeSH site you observe your preceptor with patients and staff, and take part in the care of a few patients each session: taking histories, examining, presenting and helping with diagnoses and plans. By the end of Year 1 you should manage at least three common office procedures under supervision. By the end of Year 2 you should write a full history and physical with your own assessment and plan.

The catalog describes MeSH as one afternoon a week, four hours at a time, and the curriculum page also says one afternoon a week. Other school pages put it differently. The CAS course page says one day a week from October, and the home page calls it biweekly. The faculty recruitment page says weekly or every other week, for up to 15 to 20 afternoons a year, from October to May in Year 1 and August to March in Year 2.

Year 2 CAS prepares you for clerkships, with sessions on each specialty and on harder conversations, such as sharing medical information and delivering unwelcome news. Full-time clinical work begins with the LMC in June after Year 2.

Courses in Years 1 and 2 are graded Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory, so the pre-clerkship years are pass/fail. To pass FOM you must pass every block exam, which mixes NBME and faculty-written questions, and in Year 1 every practical anatomy exam. You also need passing individual evaluations, which include professionalism, and a consistent attendance record at mandatory events.

Clinical skills are tested in OSCEs (Objective Structured Clinical Examinations): structured encounters with standardized patients, scored against a faculty checklist, covering skills such as history taking, examination and communication. In CAS you sit formative OSCEs, practice exams that do not count toward your grade, every month, and a summative OSCE at the end of each year. Encounters are recorded for video and numerical feedback.

Required clerkships and sub-internships are graded Honors (H), High Pass (HP), Pass (P), Remediated Pass (RP) or Fail (F), and Year 4 clinical electives are pass/fail. LMC grades draw on preceptor evaluations, direct observation, teaching attending evaluations, OSCEs and NBME subject exams; you also take practice shelf exams. An exceptional capstone can earn High Distinction.

The USMLE is the licensing exam series for MD students. Step 1 tests the sciences behind medicine and has been reported pass/fail only since January 26, 2022; Step 2 CK tests clinical knowledge. For MD students, attending an LCME-accredited school is what makes you eligible to sit them, while DO students and international graduates qualify through other routes.

To graduate you need a satisfactory grade in every course, the SRCC capstone, the Year 3 and 4 clerkships and electives, and passes in Step 1 and Step 2 CK. You must also meet the school's interprofessional education, community service and service learning requirements. Each year must be completed within two years and the whole curriculum within six, not counting approved leaves of absence.

• Step 1: MED 830 gives you a dedicated six-week study period at the end of Year 2, and you must take the exam before Year 4 rotations begin.
• Step 2 CK is taken in Year 4; the Rev. 5/25 curriculum map shows Step 2 CK preparation at the end of Year 3 and the start of Year 4.
• On the current schedule, an August 2027 entrant would have the Step 1 study period in the spring of 2029, before Year 3 begins that June. Step 2 CK preparation would fall around May and June 2030. That follows the 2026-27 calendar and the Rev. 5/25 curriculum map.
• 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 notice had named 2028. Both of your Step exams would fall after the change.
• USMLE says testing dates will be published more than a year ahead, and it has urged schools to review policies that restrict when students take the Step exams.
• The LCME directory, updated October 14, 2026, lists the program as fully accredited, with an initial year of 2012 and its next survey in 2029-30, matching the school's own statement.

Quinnipiac Netter describes itself as a community-hospital-based medical school. Its clinical partners include urban and community hospitals, long-term care and rehabilitation facilities, community health centers, and solo and group physician practices, with network partners elsewhere in New England and in Florida. The school says rotating through them shows you how different places organize and deliver care.

The principal partners are St. Vincent's Medical Center in Bridgeport, part of Hartford HealthCare, and Saint Francis Hospital in Hartford, the anchor of Trinity Health Of New England. The school's pages call it St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center. St. Vincent's says Netter students rotate there in third-year clerkships, fourth-year sub-internships and electives. Trinity Health Of New England says Saint Francis also teaches UConn School of Medicine students.

The school also names Connecticut Children's Medical Center in Hartford as a primary partner. Its partner list, last updated in 2023, adds other Trinity Health and Hartford HealthCare sites, community hospitals, hospice and senior care providers, and community health centers. The school's Rural Family Medicine Residency FAQ (last updated in June 2024) adds that third- and fourth-year students rotate through inpatient medicine at Charlotte Hungerford Hospital in Torrington and a Winsted outpatient clinic.

MeSH preceptors practice across Connecticut, so where you spend your MeSH afternoons in Years 1 and 2 depends on your match.

Electives fill most of Year 4: at least 28 weeks, in blocks of two to four weeks according to the faculty page. You can take them at the school's affiliated sites or as away rotations. The catalog lists a four-week QU Affiliated Elective and a four-week Away Elective.

Choices include clinical, research, teaching and leadership electives. The catalog lists home electives in surgery, internal medicine, primary care, psychiatry, pediatrics, obstetrics-gynecology, pathology and emergency medicine, plus Advanced MeSH, physical medicine and virtual electives. You can design a custom elective with the Year 4 Electives Director, and career advisers, specialty advisers and the Student Affairs deans help you plan.

Global health electives are available, including a neurology exchange with Oxford University in the UK. Some electives grow out of student work: a fourth-year adaptive fitness elective began as a student's capstone. On average, six to eight students a year now work with people with disabilities at the YMCA of Greater Hartford, learning to prescribe exercise, recognize unconscious bias and advocate for patients and caregivers.

Scholarly work at Quinnipiac Netter runs through SRCC, a required four-year course. The catalog lists eight concentrations: basic, translational and clinical research; global, community and public health; health communications; health policy and advocacy; and health care management and organizational leadership. The others are interprofessional education and practice, medical education and medical humanities, and the course page adds a self-designed option.

You design the capstone yourself, setting learning objectives, managing a budget and working with a mentor you identify in Year 1. Across Years 1 and 2 you take six graduate credits of selectives in your concentration. The school's own list runs from clinical trials and machine learning to creative writing and forensic anthropology. You can also take courses alongside graduate students in Quinnipiac's other schools, from business and law to nursing.

Year 3 gives you three capstone weeks in Cluster B, and the catalog says many capstones lead to publications. One past project produced a cheaper forensic facial-recognition method, and its author went on to help law enforcement identify a missing Connecticut woman. A Class of 2026 capstone used photovoice, in which participants' photos prompt group discussion, to explore belonging among adolescent junior staff at The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp.

The Summer Research Fellowship is optional. Between Years 1 and 2 you propose an eight-week project with a mentor; if selected, you receive a stipend for living expenses and present at Summer Research Poster Day. Recent sites range from the National Institutes of Health and Yale New Haven Hospital to projects in Kenya, Malawi and Nepal.

The Master of Medical Sciences recognizes students who complete Years 1 and 2 of the MD but are unable to finish it. You can apply within three years of leaving the medical school; it cannot be applied to directly.

The school is in the Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences building on the North Haven Campus, at 370 Bassett Road. The facilities page lists 24 teaching labs, 26 seminar and team-study rooms and 48 prosection stations, plus a research lab.

The Standardized Patient and Assessment Center (S-PAC) has 16 exam rooms set up like outpatient offices, a demonstration room and a classroom. Quinnipiac employs 100 standardized patients, plus gynecologic and urologic teaching associates who teach breast, pelvic, genital, hernia and prostate examinations. You record findings in a simulated electronic health record. A 2025 school story describes an ongoing partnership that trains Special Olympics Connecticut athletes as expert and standardized patients.

The MD program page describes an operating suite with two high-fidelity simulation rooms and a SimMan suite of lifelike manikins; the older facilities page counts seven simulation suites, including two operating rooms. Task trainers cover skills from heart, lung and eye examination to intubation, central lines, suturing and lumbar punctures, and portable ultrasound devices are used for point-of-care training.

The Edward and Barbara Netter Library, in the same building, is the main library for medical students, with about 14,000 printed volumes, 542 journal subscriptions and one-on-one research help.

When you arrive you are assigned an academic adviser and a second-year Big Sib, a student who helps you settle into Year 1. The Office of Student Affairs guides you from the White Coat Ceremony to Commencement.

The faculty page says each student is assigned a career adviser at the midpoint of Year 2, to help with clerkships, career goals, Year 4 planning, CVs and personal statements. The Student Life page describes career advisers working with you in Years 3 and 4. Specialty advisers in your field of interest are paired with you in the middle of Year 3.

Counseling comes through outside partners: two free, confidential services, one by phone that your family can also use, and one in person at one of three local practices. Other services include budget and debt consultation, legal counseling and new parent transition coaching, and every student interest group runs at least one wellness event a year.

There are more than 40 student groups. The Bobcat Community Health Alliance's own page describes student street medicine, health screenings at warming centers and shelters, and health education at a low-income senior community, all in Connecticut. In Science Fridays, about 20 medical and graduate student volunteers run weekly hands-on science sessions at St. Martin de Porres Academy in New Haven.

The Office of Inclusive Excellence runs outreach in which medical students mentor and teach young people in grades 5 to 12. It also runs PEARLS, a faculty-mentored symposium series in which student-designed inclusive excellence projects compete for seed grants and mentorship.