The USA Whiddon College of Medicine MD program

Each organ-system module draws the sciences together around one part of the body, from development and normal function to disease and treatment, and clinical cases frame much of the teaching. Modules run one after another, each offered once a year. Some subjects run across modules: a medical ethics curriculum concentrated in the pre-clerkship years and a point-of-care ultrasound curriculum that teaches ultrasound as a bedside tool.

A college policy approved in January 2026 caps lectures at an average of 12 contact hours a week and puts at least 25% of in-class hours in small groups, with 40% or more recommended. Lectures are optional unless a module director says otherwise, though attendance is expected. Team-based learning, flipped classroom, anatomy lab (including ultrasound sessions), clinical skills and CLINIC sessions are required.

In years 3 and 4, residents teach alongside faculty on the wards and in clinics, and every resident working in a clerkship must complete an orientation on teaching students each year.

College policy shapes the pre-clerkship week. Sessions fall between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday to Friday, with noon to 1 p.m. kept for lunch when possible. Each week should average at least two free half-days for independent learning.

Scheduled sessions include lectures, labs, small groups, and clinical skills and OSCE sessions. Modules have regular college-written exams, which the policy calls biweekly, plus quizzes, and each module ends with an exam built from National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) questions. Exam days usually have nothing else scheduled.

Under a college policy approved on January 21, 2026, clerkship duty hours are modeled on residents' rules: at most 80 hours a week, with a 24-hour break each week, both averaged over four weeks. A shift can run 24 hours plus up to four for handoffs and teaching, followed by at least 14 hours off; otherwise the minimum between shifts is 8 hours. The 2026-27 handbook, by contrast, sets a 16-hour limit on consecutive hours.

On the obstetrics and gynecology clerkship, case-based teaching happens over weekday lunches, and Fridays bring team-based learning and simulation labs. Each four-week fourth-year block starts on a Monday, ends on a Friday and should average at least one day in seven free of clinical duties.

Anatomy is taught within the modules by anatomical sciences faculty. It starts in the first module, Patients and Human Structure, which introduces the body's structure with patients in mind. Dissection is part of the module, along with observation and common types of medical imaging. The bodies come from donors to the university's Anatomical Gifts Program and are introduced to the class as your first patients.

Later modules return to anatomy region by region. The Musculoskeletal System module studies the limbs through anatomy labs and anatomic and radiological images. The Respiratory System module covers the airways, chest wall and thoracic cavity through prosections, specimens dissected in advance to display structures, combined with radiologic imaging. Other modules cover development, such as how the reproductive tract forms, and the nervous system.

Anatomy faculty build radiologic and ultrasound imaging into clinical anatomy, and one leads the point-of-care ultrasound curriculum. Ultrasound sessions are held in the Gross Anatomy Laboratory. Anatomy faculty also teach advanced anatomy electives, and the Anatomical Gifts Program holds memorials where students and faculty can thank donors' families.

Your first patients are simulated: in Clinical Skills 1, trained actors portray patients with particular conditions. Real patients arrive through CLINIC, which the 2026-27 curriculum chart describes as direct patient contact at regional ambulatory clinics. Its specialty settings in year 2 also let you explore careers early. A 2021 college article said CLINIC began in 2017, pairing students with local family medicine, pediatric and internal medicine practitioners.

The modules add clinical experiences too. In the Urinary System module, for example, you learn about kidney disease partly by evaluating patients directly. Clinical Skills 2 ends with a primer on rounding and an introduction to the electronic medical record.

Outside the curriculum, the USA Student-Run Free Clinic at the Salvation Army in downtown Mobile reopened in April 2026. There, on weekday afternoons, preclinical students take histories and examine patients, then present them to a supervising physician.

Full-time patient care starts with clerkships in late June after year 2. You are supervised in every aspect of care: with approval you take histories, examine patients and enter findings in the medical record, and orders you write need a co-signature. The year 4 acting internship moves you toward the role of a first-year resident.

Years 1 to 3 are graded Honors, Pass or Fail, with numeric scores behind each grade. In modules, Honors means 94% or more or the top 10% of the class, and Pass means 70% to 93%. Each module grade is 60% the college-written exams held during the module, 30% the final NBME-based exam and 10% quizzes.

That final exam, a customized NBME assessment or miniboard, follows the Step 1 format with questions your teachers choose from an NBME bank. Graded exams are taken on college computers under an Honor Code. Class rank, calculated from module, OSCE and clerkship scores through year 3, can matter for competitive residencies and election to Alpha Omega Alpha, the national medical honor society.

Gateway OSCEs, which you must pass to move on, come at the end of year 1, in the fall and spring of year 2 and at the end of year 3. You need 70% at every station, each usually a standardized patient case, and a failed station must be retaken and passed within 60 days.

The handbook's standard clerkship formula is 50% clinical evaluations, 30% the NBME shelf exam and 20% active learning. It also says shelf scores typically count for 30 to 40%, depending on the clerkship, and some clerkships add graded elements. Shelf scores are compared nationally with students tested at the same point in the year, and you must reach the 8th percentile. Selectives and fourth-year courses are pass or fail, and clerkship directors' comments go into the dean's letter for residency applications.

The USMLE has three Steps, all needed for a license to practice, as the handbook notes. To graduate you must pass Step 1, on the basic sciences and reported pass or fail since January 2022, and Step 2 CK (Clinical Knowledge), scored on a three-digit scale. The college registers you for both. Step 1 comes before year 3, though clerkships can start while you await the result, and Step 2 CK is due by November 1 of year 4.

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 set the start for 2028. On the current schedule, a student entering in August 2027 would sit Step 1 in May or June 2029 and owe Step 2 CK by early November 2030. Both fall after the change, and the USMLE has urged schools to review rules on when students must test, so the college's timing rules may change.

• Before Step 1 you take two required NBME practice exams, typically the Comprehensive Basic Science Examination and Self-Assessment, used to predict your result and plan support.
• If allowed to delay Step 1, you take ASA 311, a four-week study course at the start of year 3, and sit the exam before it ends, delaying your clerkships.
• Clinical Skills grades combine OSCE scores (60%), competency-based evaluations rated against a rubric (30%) and CLINIC assignments (10%).
• Each year in years 1 to 3 you also need 20 Continuous Professional Development credits, from activities such as grand rounds, research and service. In years 1 and 2, at least 8 must be community service.

Clinical training is based in USA Health. Its University Hospital and Children's & Women's Hospital are the college's primary patient care facilities, with University Hospital the main inpatient site for adult care.

University Hospital is a referral center for southwest Alabama, southeast Mississippi and part of northwest Florida, with Level I trauma, burn, stroke, cardiovascular disease and sickle cell disease centers. Children's & Women's is a freestanding hospital for children and women. It has more than 2,500 deliveries a year, a Level III neonatal intensive care unit, a pediatric intensive care unit, high-risk obstetrics and a pediatric emergency center expanded in 2024.

Every third-year clerkship is taken at USA. Clerkship schedules come from a lottery in the spring of year 2: you submit several proposed schedules, and a randomized list assigns them. You can petition within five business days for reasons such as health, caregiving, family changes or disability, but not over the order itself.

Primary Care Pathway students also train at a community clinic assigned by the Pathway team. The Pathway's site list covers Mobile and Baldwin counties, and a 2026 college article says Pathway students train in Federally Qualified Health Centers, federally funded clinics serving underserved areas. Travel to your site is compensated.

Choice starts in year 3, when you can swap the neurology clerkship for a one-month selective in orthopedic surgery, emergency medicine, pathology, radiology, research or neurosurgery, taking neurology in year 4. You first meet the selective director for career advice. The research selective needs pre-approval and is for continuing an existing project, not starting one.

Fourth year adds 16 weeks of electives beyond the required courses, such as a lifestyle medicine elective with several teaching kitchen sessions. The college's Senior Manual, an undated page with some older material, lists acting internships across emergency medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, critical care, neurology, obstetrics, orthopedic surgery, psychiatry, pediatrics and several surgical services. The manual describes the acting intern as the primary provider of care for a service's hospital patients at the level of a first-year resident, under supervision, taking night and weekend call or shifts.

In year 4, 20 weeks must be at USA, and up to 12 can be taken off campus with approval. That includes up to three four-week audition electives, rotations at hospitals where you might apply for residency, mostly arranged through the Association of American Medical Colleges' Visiting Student Learning Opportunities (VSLO) service. You may miss up to five days of a four-week course for interviews or Step 2 CK, except during an acting internship.

International electives need approval from the Associate Dean for Medical Education and special insurance through the university's international office. Each year fourth-year students can join a mission elective at Kibogora Hospital, a rural hospital in southwest Rwanda, led by the Christian Medical Ministry of South Alabama. Twelve students went for four weeks in February 2024, and the 2026 trip was a two-week mission.

Research is optional. The Medical Student Summer Research Program is an eight-week program, with stipends, for accepted entering students and rising second-year students. It combines basic science or clinical research with a faculty mentor, a seminar series and presentations at Medical Student Research Day. The college reports 51 participants in one recent summer, 17 of them incoming first-years. Research projects outside the program earn professional development credits.

The M.D. with Research Honors Program is for students in good standing with a mentor holding a Whiddon College of Medicine appointment. You are expected to have spent at least one summer on the project. You submit a prospectus by May 31 at the end of year 2 and present it to the committee for acceptance.

An interim report is due at the end of year 3, a final report before January 15 of year 4 and a publication-ready manuscript by March 15. After an oral presentation before the end of March, the committee decides whether you earn the honors notation. The program warns that it demands a significant investment of time alongside the M.D.

For a longer break, a personal leave of absence can be used for an educational opportunity such as a research year. It lasts up to one calendar year, counts toward the six-year limit for completing the M.D. and appears on your transcript and Medical Student Performance Evaluation, the dean's letter.

Pre-clerkship teaching is based in the Medical Sciences Building, home to the Gross Anatomy Laboratory, lecture auditoriums, teaching laboratories and rooms for small groups or whole classes. The Office of Student Affairs and the Division of Medical Education are there too, and teaching also uses the adjacent Small Group Learning Center.

The Simulation Center fills 13,000 square feet on the third floor of the Health Simulation Building, with a task trainer lab, classrooms, control rooms and debriefing spaces besides its clinic and hospital rooms. Task trainers cover skills such as pelvic and breast exams, lumbar puncture, paracentesis and listening with a stethoscope, and there are ultrasound units.

Two teaching kitchens, in Mobile and Baldwin County, support culinary medicine. The Charles M. Baugh Biomedical Library offers print and electronic collections, literature search help and study rooms.

Directly behind University Hospital, the Mastin Patient Care Center has small classrooms and a satellite Office of Student Affairs, and both teaching hospitals have Active Learning Center classrooms. A 295,000-square-foot Whiddon College of Medicine building, where ground was broken in December 2023, is scheduled to open in 2027. It will bring research and education under one roof, and a third teaching kitchen is planned there.

At orientation you join one of five Wellness Houses for all four years: Apalachee, Blakeley, Mobile, Spanish or Tensaw. Each is named for a river that empties into Mobile Bay, and houses compete in drives and events and meet for dinners and socials. The Wellness Council of students and faculty advisors oversees them and sends representatives to college committees, including the Curriculum Committee.

A full-time health and wellness counselor serves only College of Medicine students, offering confidential counseling for individuals, couples and groups, with no need for an identified mental health problem. Monthly wellness forums and Mental Health First Aid training are offered, and PEERS (Peer Emotional and Educational Resilience Support), a group of carefully chosen student volunteers, offers a listening ear.

The Office of Academic Success offers one-on-one sessions, tailored study plans and help with test-taking and time management. Peer Academic Leaders, second- to fourth-year students who scored at or above the class mean in the courses they support, help others individually and in groups. After student requests, the college bought the UWorld question bank for all students, kept the Osmosis study resource and added NBME self-assessments.

Career advising builds in the second half of year 3: departments hold information meetings in January and February, and you choose a faculty advisor in your likely specialty, switching if plans change. Each advisor takes at most four advisees a year and helps plan your fourth year, choose residency programs and apply through ERAS, the online residency application service.