The Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University MD program

In Phase 1 you go through each body system once, learning how it is built, how it works, what goes wrong, how to diagnose it and how to manage the patient. The Fundamentals courses lay the base science, and the Systems courses build on it.

The school restructured Phase 1 in 2020-21 and shortened it by about six weeks. It also added more active learning: flipped classroom work, where you study the material first and use class time to apply it, along with simulation, case-based discussion and self-directed learning.

Some topics run through every stage as threads. Social determinants of health (living conditions such as income and housing that shape health), patient safety, quality improvement and bias in medicine start in Doctoring and return across the curriculum. The school says it is also expanding nutrition education, after mapping the nutrition content already in the program.

From Phase 2 you learn mainly on clinical teams. An April 2022 restructure added the Transition courses and Intersessions, so you prepare for each setting before you reach it. In Phase 3 you see undifferentiated patients in the emergency department, meaning people who arrive without a diagnosis. You also treat severe illness in critical care units and take an active part in working up and managing patients.

Anatomy comes first. Your opening course, Fundamentals 1: Human Structure, covers clinical anatomy and imaging, embryology, the microscopic structure of basic tissues and core cell physiology. The 2026-27 calendar runs it from August 10 to October 2, about eight weeks.

You learn by cadaveric dissection, which means working on a donated human body. The school's Technical Standards, which students must meet to progress and graduate, with or without reasonable accommodations, include taking part in cadaver dissection. WellSpan's curriculum page lists dissection sessions in the Fundamentals courses, and the 2026-27 Bulletin refers to the cadaver lab in Fundamentals 1.

A December 2024 school report described the Class of 2028 meeting their donors that August, in small groups at assigned tables in the fourth-floor anatomy labs, and learning through systematic dissection and examination. Students were told little about each donor beyond age, occupation and cause of death. That November, students organized Donor Remembrance Day, which honored 57 donors.

The Bulletin also lists Specialized Anatomy Review, a second-year elective on a body region you choose, which includes the chance to be a teaching assistant in the cadaver lab for first-years.

The school describes learning alongside real patients from the start. In the required first-year Doctoring course you work with standardized patients, who learn a case based on a real patient, answer your questions and act out signs such as pain or difficulty walking. The school's standardized patient program dates from 1999.

Patient instructors are lay people trained to teach examination on their own bodies, so they can show you how to listen to the heart and lungs, feel the abdomen and test reflexes.

Point-of-care ultrasound, a handheld scanner used at the bedside, is introduced in Doctoring and built into the curriculum. In 2022 the school gave each first-year in the Class of 2026 a device. The Bulletin also lists an elective for more hands-on training and a clinical elective doing bedside scans in the emergency department.

Several options outside the required courses put you with real patients before clerkships. An Exploration of Narrative Medicine, one early elective, includes visiting patients in the hospital. In April 2026 Temple reported that first- through fourth-year students staff the free Thrive clinic with residents and attending physicians, taking histories and doing physical exams. The Global Medicine Program says a first international clinical experience often comes in the summer after first year.

Required rotations start in April of second year. The Technical Standards warn that clinical work can mean day, evening and night hours on weekdays and weekends. The 2016-17 handbook, which predates the current curriculum, capped assigned clinical duties at 80 hours a week, averaged over four weeks.

Two USMLE exams fall during medical school. Step 1 tests the science that underpins medicine and has been reported as pass/fail only since January 26, 2022. Step 2 CK (Clinical Knowledge) tests how you apply clinical knowledge and still gives a three-digit score.

The calendar sets aside time for Step 1. On the 2026-27 calendar, second-years sit the NBME Comprehensive Basic Science Exam on February 12, 2027. Their USMLE Step 1 Study Period then runs from February 13 to April 11, and Transition to Phase 2 starts on April 12.

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. The change reaches students entering in 2027.

On the current schedule, a 2027 entrant would have a Step 1 study period from about mid-February to mid-April 2029, so Step 1 would fall within a few months after the switch. Step 2 CK would fall after the switch too, because clerkships would begin only in about April 2029. These dates are projected from the 2026-27 calendar, so check newer calendars as they appear.

In Phase 1, peer tutors run a review session before the final examination of each course. The Transition courses are pass/fail. The Bulletin lists a minimum grade of Pass (P) in the Fundamentals, Systems and Doctoring courses as the prerequisite for Transition to Phase 2.

Shelf exams are standardized NBME subject tests, usually taken at the end of a clerkship. The school's tutoring page mentions clinical subject exams in Phase 2, and the Bulletin says Emergency Medicine ends with an NBME exam. The university's Transcript Key, last revised in July 2020, predates both the 2020-21 Phase 1 redesign and the April 2022 Phase 2 restructure. It records the grading system for students entering from August 2010, honors-pass-fail in first and second years and honors-high pass-pass-fail in third and fourth years, so ask the school which applies to your class.

• The school's simulation institute uses standardized patients to train and evaluate you in interviewing and examining patients, in MD years 1, 2 and 3.
• WellSpan's page says students at all three campuses are evaluated with the same exams and other metrics.
• You must attest in writing that you meet the Technical Standards, with or without accommodations, before entering Phase 2 and again before Phase 3.
• The Bulletin sets a six-year time limit for the MD and requires full-time study. It also lists approved Independent Study for postponed exams, USMLE study or retakes, and deceleration, which means moving through courses at a slower pace.

Your campus is your base for clinical training, and you help choose it. You rank the campus options on the supplemental application, and the school says it makes every effort to honor your preferences. Your acceptance letter then names your campus, and that assignment is binding.

In North Philadelphia, Temple University Hospital, founded in 1892, is the main clinical training site, and doctors in 45 graduate medical education programs train there too. You can also rotate at other hospitals in Temple Health, the university's health system, and at St. Luke's, WellSpan and other affiliates. The Technical Standards say you must be able to travel to sites around the region.

Department pages show how far clerkships reach. Surgery lists Temple University Hospital's Main and Jeanes campuses, St. Luke's Hospital, Fox Chase, Main Line Health, Lancaster General and Grand View. OB/GYN lists Temple University Hospital, Holy Redeemer, Lancaster General, St. Luke's, Capital Health and Main Line Health. Family Medicine places you at one of more than 20 sites in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.

St. Luke's has a stated class size of 40, and 43 students entered in 2026. You stay for all four years, and the medical education building is directly across the street from the hospital. The St. Luke's network runs hospitals and outpatient centers across eastern Pennsylvania and western New Jersey. Students can also rotate at Temple Health hospitals and WellSpan in the final phase.

WellSpan's York campus is planned for about 40 students per class for all four years, with the first class expected in August 2027 and due to graduate in May 2031. As of November 2026, WellSpan's page, under its LCME accreditation heading, says an application has been submitted to add the campus as a regional site. A 2027 entrant could be in that first class, so check where this stands before you rank it.

WellSpan says it teaches the same curriculum as the other campuses, and it has been a regional clinical campus for Drexel University College of Medicine for 12 years. A fourth campus, with AtlantiCare in Atlantic City, New Jersey, is planned for August 2029, so it is not an option for 2027 entrants.

During Phase 1 you can take electives in the humanities, clinical disciplines or research. They are optional and do not affect graduation requirements. The general first- and second-year elective runs for seven two-hour sessions, and student interest and faculty availability decide what is offered.

The Bulletin's early electives include Humans of North Philly, where you interview and photograph local residents with a photojournalist. Others are Artful Thinking, held in the galleries of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and Wilderness Medicine. The Bulletin keeps older courses on its lists, so a named elective may not run every year.

The 2026-27 Bulletin requires one 4-week elective block in third year, which you can split into two 2-week electives. Its Career Exploration electives give you a look at fields such as cardiology, palliative care, vascular surgery and child psychiatry.

In fourth year the 2026-27 Bulletin requires five 4-week elective blocks, clinical or non-clinical. Clinical choices include Addiction Medicine, Burn Surgery and the Emergency Psychiatry Crisis Response Center. Other choices include Advanced Topics in Health Justice and Literature and Medicine, both non-clinical, and a Doctoring Teaching Elective, where you teach clinical skills to other students.

Schedules in Phases 2 and 3 come from a course selection process the school calls a lottery, and the 2025-26 calendar gave second- and third-years a class meeting for it. Your residency career advisor must approve your elective choices, and Phase 2 and 3 deans or directors review your schedule before it is final.

Away rotations are electives at another institution, often in a specialty you are considering. The Bulletin lists a two-week third-year away elective that you arrange yourself, and fourth-year options such as Advanced Obstetrics and Gynecology - Away. Non-Graded Specialty Experience, at another US medical institution, shows as Credit or No Credit and does not count toward Phase 3 graduation criteria.

• The Global Medicine Program offers disaster and global medicine electives in the first two years, and work abroad with attending physicians in Africa, Asia, Central America and South America.
• The same program says third- and fourth-years can rotate at more than a dozen affiliated medical schools on five continents.
• International Medicine, listed in the Bulletin, is a non-clinical course comparing a foreign health system with the American one. It needs approval and does not count toward Phase 3 graduation criteria.

Scholarly work is part of the MD, not an extra. FMSE is a structured project taken from first question to sharing the results. Many students start in the summer after first year, and others begin in Phase 2, when it becomes a formal course.

If you still have work to do in fourth year, FMSE 3 is a non-clinical course in which you are expected to submit an abstract or manuscript. Any remainder must be finished on your own time by Block 10. If you finish in Phase 2, Phase 3 Research gives you four weeks to move the work toward presentation or publication.

At the first FMSE Symposium in April 2025, Class of 2025 students presented on topics such as repeat emergency department visits and gene therapy in a mouse model. The student-founded Future Physician Research Symposium reached its seventh year in 2026.

For a longer research break, the Bulletin lists Independent Study Level 1: Academic Enrichment, which is approved time for research or other scholarly work. The school cites 15 research centers, in areas such as cancer, Alzheimer's and heart disease. WellSpan says it has nearly 300 studies under way and plans summer research for its students.

• MD/PhD: typically 7 to 8 years. You complete Phase 1 and four lab rotations, spend 3 to 4 years on doctoral research, then return for Phases 2 and 3. The school offers full tuition and a stipend to three students each year.
• MD/PhD research falls in five clusters: cancer biology and genetics; infectious disease and immunity; molecular and cellular biosciences; neuroscience; and organ systems and translational medicine.
• MD/MA in Health Justice and Bioethics: a core curriculum and thesis, with some MD courses counting toward the degree. It can run alongside medical school with no additional time and usually starts in fall of first year.
• MD/MBA, with Temple's Fox School of Business: online MBA courses at any time during medical school, with no additional time needed, after a five-day on-campus orientation.
• MD/Certificate in Narrative Medicine: small seminars in the pre-clinical and clinical years and a capstone project, adding 10 credits over four years.
• The university says students in the dual master's programs can enroll at any of the three campuses.
• Two routes link college and the MD. The Medical Scholars Program is an eight-year BA/MD with Washington & Jefferson College, and Temple's Accelerated Health Scholars earn their bachelor's degree after the first year of medical school.

In North Philadelphia, a few miles from downtown, your home base is MERB, opened in 2009. It has 11 stories and 480,000 square feet, with classrooms, open research space and a 12,000-square-foot clinical skills and robotic simulation center.

Simulation runs through the William Maul Measey Institute for Clinical Simulation and Patient Safety, which the American College of Surgeons most recently reaccredited in 2023. Procedural trainers cover skills such as pelvic exams, arterial blood gas collection and ultrasound-guided central line insertion. Virtual reality trainers give haptic feedback, the physical feel of a procedure, and high-fidelity adult and infant simulators recreate clinical scenarios.

The Schneck Gross Anatomy Lab opened in 2009 and is named for Carson D. Schneck, who taught at the school for five decades. In York, the WellSpan building sits about 10 minutes from WellSpan York Hospital and two blocks from the Jersey College School of Nursing.

Every student at North Philadelphia and St. Luke's is assigned an academic coach on entry. Coaches are clinical faculty chosen through a formal application, and they work with you one-on-one and in groups through all phases.

Before Phase 2 you also get a residency career advisor, part of a structured advising system that began in 2023-24. These advisors give academic advice on clinical schedules.

Peer academic facilitators are second- to fourth-year students chosen by application and interview, then trained. They give one-on-one help with course content, study techniques and practice questions, and in Phase 1 they run group sessions, including weekly content reviews.

The Office of Student Support is in MERB, and its staff include a director of personal counseling and wellness. The school lists an associate dean of student support for each of the three campuses.

If you have a disability, the Office of Disability Resources and Services evaluates what accommodations you need. The school encourages you to ask early, because accommodations never apply retroactively.