The SUNY Upstate Medical University Norton College of Medicine MD program

Phase 1 opens with two foundation courses. Molecules, Cells & Microbes bridges college science to medicine, covering biochemistry, genetics, cell biology, microbiology and immunology. Foundations, Skin & Cancer introduces microscopic anatomy, general pathology and pharmacology, using the skin as its first organ system, and ends with how cancers arise and are treated.

From November of year 1 you take one organ system at a time, each in a course of four to seven weeks. A course covers the normal structure and function of its system, then its diseases, drugs and imaging, with clinical cases throughout. Clinical Neuroscience, Practice of Medicine, Foundations of Reasoning in Medicine and the Longitudinal Clinical Preceptorship run alongside for all three semesters.

Health Systems Science comes as six week-long sessions, two per semester, on ethics, equity and professionalism, health humanities, population health, epidemiology and biostatistics, health finance and delivery, and health law and advocacy. The 2023 redesign also increased active learning, and an August 2023 newsletter from Upstate's medical education office described faculty cutting passive lectures further. Six curricular threads run through the courses, among them diagnosis and patient safety.

In Phase 2 most teaching happens on clinical teams, backed by core lectures and online modules such as the WISE MD cases in surgery. Two short courses run across the clerkship year. In Clinical Bioethics, small groups discuss ethical problems from their own patients; Population Health for Physicians adds public health discussions and a tabletop emergency preparedness exercise.

In Phase 1 most weeks belong to a single organ-system course, with the longitudinal courses fitted around it. In the 2026-27 first-year schedule, every Thursday at 8 a.m., except in a course's first week, brings a weekly formative assessment, a check designed to give you feedback on your progress. In the first two semesters, alternate weeks also hold your preceptorship half-day.

Upstate's 2025-26 Phase 1 calendar key labels every session. Small groups, team-based learning sessions, labs and required workshops are compulsory and are not recorded. Instructor presentations are recorded and compulsory only when marked as required, and some content comes as pre-recorded material or pre-work to finish before an in-person session.

Upstate teaches anatomy with cadaver dissection. You begin dissecting in the Musculoskeletal System course, a six-week block that ran from early November to mid-December of year 1 in the 2026-27 schedule. It pairs dissection with radiology demonstrations, case-based sessions and clinically focused small groups, and ends with a written exam and a lab practical.

Anatomy then continues inside the later organ-system courses. Respiratory System, for example, includes gross anatomy lab sessions, and the Phase 1 calendar marks sessions as gross anatomy, microscopic anatomy or neuroanatomy. Applied Neuroanatomy, Respiratory System and Cardiovascular System also end with practical exams held in the lab.

If you enjoy anatomy, you can come back to the lab. The Teaching in Human Anatomy elective (1 to 5 credits, counted as a basic science selective) has you help first-years with their daily dissections and small-group sessions. The three-year Clinical Anatomy Instruction microcredential trains you in advanced dissection for your chosen specialty and in how to teach anatomy.

Clinical training starts within weeks. In the 2026-27 schedule, a Clinical Bootcamp and Longitudinal Launch Week came in late August, about a month after classes began, opening both Practice of Medicine and the Longitudinal Clinical Preceptorship. Practice of Medicine then continues in small groups with clinicians and adds clinical experiences in different parts of the health care system.

In the preceptorship's first two semesters you are assigned one preceptor and spend half a day every other week in their outpatient office. You take part directly in patient care and learn how doctors, nurses and support staff run a practice. In the spring you turn a question from one of these patients into a structured evidence-based medicine question in PICO form (patient, intervention, comparison, outcome). You then present your findings to a small group for a grade.

In your third semester the preceptorship moves into the hospital. You join a team on an inpatient unit, round with it and see patients before and after rounds, learning how the hospital runs. Full-time clinical work starts with the clerkships in mid-March of year 2.

All Phase 1 courses and electives are graded pass/fail. Each organ-system course ends with a written exam, and most add a practical exam. Clinical Neuroscience sets regular quizzes, and diagnostic exams come in late April of year 1 and in October and mid-December of year 2. Exams run on ExamSoft's Examplify software.

Clinical skills are tested with standardized patients. Practice of Medicine's standardized patient exams are graded either on a written patient note or on an oral case presentation. After the clerkship year you must pass the Clinical Skills Exam (CSE), a multi-station exam in the Clinical Skills Center covering communication, history-taking and examination, and clinical reasoning. Exams of this kind are often called OSCEs (Objective Structured Clinical Examinations).

Clerkships are graded Honors, High Pass, Pass or Fail, and Phase 2 electives can be graded the same way. Each clerkship sets its Honors and High Pass cutoffs from earlier years' results, and every clerkship grade comes with a written narrative. Most core clerkships also require you to pass a standardized patient exam.

Each clerkship ends with a subject exam, often called a shelf exam: a standardized test of the specialty from the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME). The NBME co-sponsors the USMLE with the Federation of State Medical Boards. The pediatrics clerkship weights clinical performance at 40%, the NBME exam at 30% and a final standardized patient exam at 15%, with small weights for notes, logging and peer assessment.

Step 1 and Step 2 CK are part of the USMLE, whose results state medical boards use in licensing decisions. Step 1 covers the science behind medicine and, for exams taken from January 26, 2022, reports only pass or fail; Step 2 CK tests clinical knowledge. Upstate requires you to pass both to graduate. Students enrolled in, or graduates of, LCME-accredited MD programs like this one are eligible to sit both exams.

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 start Step 1 study in early January 2029 and sit Step 1 by early March 2029, shortly after the switch. Step 2 CK would follow by August 15, 2030. These are projections: the 2028-29 calendar, which will carry that class's Step 1 deadline, is not out yet.

• Step 1 comes before the clerkship year, by a deadline in each year's academic calendar: March 5, 2027 for the Class of 2029 and March 3, 2028 for the Class of 2030.
• Step 2 CK is due by August 15 at the start of your final year: August 15, 2026 for the Class of 2027 and August 15, 2027 for the Class of 2028.
• Upstate's Step 2 advising page notes that residency programs consider Step 2 scores, which take three to four weeks to arrive.

For the clerkship year, about three quarters of the class stay in Syracuse and a quarter, about 40 students, go to Binghamton. During Accepted Student Week, in the spring before you enroll, you hear about the two clinical campuses and then fill in a campus preference form. Upstate takes preferences into account and announces assignments before the commit-to-enroll deadline, and they are binding.

Syracuse students rotate through three hospitals in Upstate's own health system: Upstate University Hospital, Upstate Golisano Children's Hospital and Upstate Community Hospital. They also work at the Syracuse VA (Veterans Affairs) Medical Center, Crouse Hospital, Hutchings Psychiatric Center and outpatient practices across central New York. University Hospital is a Level I trauma center and houses the Upstate Cancer Center, Upstate Stroke Center and Clark Burn Center.

Surgery students usually spend five weeks on general surgery services, which, depending on site, range from trauma, burns and transplant surgery to teams at Upstate Community Hospital and the VA. They add two weeks in a subspecialty such as orthopedics or urology. Crouse Hospital hosts electives in its intensive care unit and in anesthesiology, and acting internships in high-risk obstetrics and in its 57-bed Level IV neonatal intensive care unit.

In Binghamton, clerkships run through UHS Wilson Medical Center in Johnson City, UHS Binghamton General Hospital, UHS Chenango Memorial Hospital in Norwich and Guthrie Lourdes Hospital, plus family care and outpatient sites. Most clerkship time is at UHS hospitals, and emergency medicine is at Lourdes. Chenango Memorial is an option for surgery or obstetrics and gynecology, and many family medicine preceptors work for Endwell Family Physicians.

You need reliable transportation for the whole clerkship year, because public transport does not reach every site. In Binghamton you arrange your own housing; campus staff post apartment leads each year and give some reimbursement for moving costs. Binghamton students who take electives back in Syracuse may be eligible for up to eight weeks of free housing in Geneva Tower. The campus FAQ ties this to staying in Binghamton for at least 12 elective credits.

Students in the RMED elective spend part of the clerkship year in their host community, working with community-based physicians on office hours, inpatient rounds and night call. Syracuse-campus students in RMED do their family medicine clerkship there too, and you agree the site with the program director.

Electives are rotations or courses you choose. In the four-year pathway you need 32 elective credits to graduate, and a standard elective carries one credit per week. The 2026-27 catalog counts more than 170 electives in the Course Selection Book, offered at Upstate University Hospital, the Binghamton campus and affiliated sites. If what you want is not in the book, you can propose a unique elective, which needs approval before it starts; allow about six weeks. Up to 8 credits can come from the pre-clerkship years.

Some credits are set. Four must be an acting internship at Upstate, supervised by attendings, the fully trained physicians in charge of patient care. Two must be a basic science selective. No more than 20 required clinical elective credits may come from one department, with at least 12 from others.

Upstate's approved acting internships span most specialties, from pediatric intensive care and neonatology to trauma surgery and radiation oncology, with a neonatal-perinatal option in Binghamton. Many students add acting internships elsewhere, often called audition rotations, at programs where they may apply for residency.

Electives at other institutions are away rotations, and up to 12 extramural credits count toward graduation. You apply through VSLO (Visiting Student Learning Opportunities), usually in February and March. Options include other medical schools, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and underserved areas in the US or abroad. Some students take one the summer after year 1, and international electives also need an approved study abroad contract.

Final-year electives are chosen through an elective lottery in January of year 3. Binghamton students who stay on can take electives there such as infectious disease, dermatology, palliative care and a family medicine acting internship. Other options include Consortium for Culture and Medicine classes with Syracuse University and Le Moyne College, hospice volunteering, and microcredentials in areas such as climate and health or physician advocacy.

The MD/PhD program trains physician-scientists in no more than eight years. You do about 18 months of medical school and take Step 1; the 2026 transition timeline then has ten weeks of clerkships before the PhD starts in June. About four years of research follow, with weekly MD/PhD Grand Rounds and standardized patient sessions, before the last two years of clinical training. Lab rotations run in the summers before and after year 1, and stipends and tuition scholarships are provided.

The MD/MPH with Upstate's own public health program usually takes about five years, with most MPH coursework done in the program's first year, called Year Zero. You choose one of three concentrations: public health methods, global health and translational science, or population health for clinicians. The five-year MD/MBA with Syracuse University's Whitman School of Management starts with a year of MBA study and adds a practicum in the summer after year 1.

The Three-Year Pathway takes about 10 students a year, with entry points at the start and end of year 1. You join your chosen department in the summer after year 1, take Step 1 by late January of year 2 and start clerkships five weeks ahead of the four-year class. You need 19 elective credits rather than 32 and must pass Step 1 and Step 2 CK on the first attempt; MD/PhD and MD/MBA students are not eligible.

Two BS/MD tracks lead from a bachelor's degree into this MD. The Binghamton University track is for students in their first year there, and the Syracuse University track is for high school seniors. Each has five places a year.

The Office of Research for Medical Students helps you find mentors, funding and projects across more than 20 basic and clinical departments or off campus. Summer research is available between years 1 and 2, and many departments offer research electives in Syracuse and Binghamton. Binghamton-based projects, some remote, can start in your first semester through partnerships with UHS, Guthrie and Binghamton University.

The Medical Student Research Microcredential recognizes at least 240 hours of hypothesis-driven research that leads to a poster, talk or paper. Since 2026 it can also cover research done at another institution. The Department of Neuroscience and Physiology describes a one-year MS in Physiology for students who have taken Step 1. However, the 2026-27 catalog lists the graduate Physiology MS and PhD as not accepting applicants that year.

Upstate's academic campus sits at the edge of downtown Syracuse, across the street from Syracuse University. Its main building for basic science, labs and teaching is Weiskotten Hall, whose cornerstone President Franklin D. Roosevelt laid in 1934, when the college was still part of Syracuse University.

Clinical skills teaching uses the Simulation Department's two centers, on the same floor and joined by a hallway. The University Simulation Center in Weiskotten Hall handles procedures and manikin-based simulation, while the Clinical Skills Center in Setnor Hall is the main venue for exams with standardized patients. Between them they have 22 exam rooms for standardized patient encounters, a simulated operating room, six acute care suites, task-training and haptics rooms, and video recording throughout.

The Binghamton Clinical Campus occupies the fifth floor of Binghamton University's Health Sciences Building in Johnson City, a former Endicott-Johnson shoe box factory a few blocks from UHS Wilson. Classes, subject exams and interprofessional sessions usually take place there.

Career Advising, Professional Development and Personal Growth (CAPP) is a series of eight short courses spread over the four years (over three years for 3YP students). Drawing on the AAMC's Careers in Medicine program, it combines career and academic advising with wellbeing and professional identity, from understanding yourself to choosing a specialty and preparing for residency.

The Office of Educational and Career Success, set up in 2019, joins academic advising and career planning, with offices in Weiskotten Hall. Academic Support Services adds one-to-one academic counseling with an individual plan, peer tutoring, and workshops on study skills, test anxiety and strategic study for the USMLE, including panel discussions on Step 1.

In Binghamton, the campus Office of Student Affairs works with the Syracuse team on advising, from electives to residency planning, and helps you relocate and settle in. The campus lists its own counseling services, and the university's Student Counseling Center offers counseling to Upstate students.