The University of Cincinnati College of Medicine MD program

In Phase 1 the science is organized mainly by organ system. Each course covers how one part of the body works and what goes wrong with it, and links the basic sciences to the specialties that treat it. The college says its aim is to bring patient care into the pre-clerkship years and to revisit the foundational sciences during clinical training.

Formats vary by course. Course pages mention lectures and interactive sessions. Renal-Endocrine adds flipped classroom sessions, where you prepare beforehand and apply the material in class, and Cardiovascular-Pulmonary uses clinical problem solving to join basic and clinical science. Learning Communities and Clinical Skills follow the organ-system course of the moment, so your cases match what you are studying.

From April of year 2 you learn mainly on hospital and clinic teams. Clerkship outcomes are aligned with the Core Entrustable Professional Activities of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC): tasks, such as taking a history, that a new resident should be trusted to do. Phase 3 gives you more independence.

A June 2026 workload policy sets out what a Phase 1 week should hold. Scheduled activities, including lectures, labs and dissections, small groups, clinical sessions and exams, should not exceed 25 hours a week, averaged over two weeks. About 30 more hours go to independent study, and required assignments outside class should average no more than 5. The policy treats 60 to 65 hours a week in total as a reasonable load.

Scheduled teaching runs between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. The noon hour stays free of required events so you can travel to clinical sessions, though Clinical Skills and Fundamentals of Doctoring sometimes need exceptions. A workload group that includes student representatives checks course schedules against these limits.

Under the attendance policy, last revised in 2022, required events include small groups, dissection labs, Learning Communities, Clinical Skills, service-learning sessions, exams and sessions with a patient present. The August 2026 scheduling policy says mandatory events are flagged on the schedule, published four weeks before a course starts, and none can be added once it begins.

The week changes once clerkships start. The duty hours policy caps required clinical time at 80 hours a week, averaged over four weeks, with one day in seven free on average. Overnight call should average no more than every third night. On surgery, the 2026-27 syllabus sets hours of 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday to Saturday, plus optional call nights.

Anatomy is built into the Phase 1 science courses. Scientific Foundations of Medicine lists anatomy and embryology among its disciplines, Musculoskeletal and Integumentary Systems pairs anatomy with clinical specialties, and Cardiovascular-Pulmonary Systems covers the anatomy of the heart and lungs.

The first- and second-year attendance policy, last revised in October 2022 and still on the college's policy portal, lists dissection laboratories among required events. It expects you to tell your dissection team if you will miss one. The college's June 2026 workload policy lists laboratories and dissections among scheduled Phase 1 activities. Donated bodies come through the college's Body Donation Program, which says donation lets medical students closely examine the structure of the human body.

A May 2026 UC News story on an undergraduate anatomy certificate says learning from human donors is typically reserved for medical school, and that its students did advanced dissections and learned alongside medical students. A 2015 UC News story described students dissecting donor bodies in a first-year gross anatomy course, the study of the body's visible structures, and an annual memorial service for donors and their families. The college's 2023-24 slides for admitted students said Learning Community groups also stayed together for anatomy and clinical skills.

Your first patients are standardized patients, who give you feedback. In Clinical Skills 101, in the first semester, you learn to take a history and do a detailed head-to-toe exam with them. You then move on to team cases and learn to explain your assessment to the patient.

Real patients come next. From the second half of year 1, Fundamentals of Doctoring places you with your own community preceptor in their outpatient office. The family medicine department says you meet your preceptor every other week, and that preceptors come from across medical specialties. The course also includes training with professionals in nutrition, nursing, social work, physical and occupational therapy, and speech and language pathology.

Your Learning Community starts work with its community partner in the August introductory block of year 1, as part of Physician and Society. You get to know the partner in the fall, carry out your project in the spring and present it at the end of the year.

Phase 1 is graded pass/fail. Each course sets a minimum pass level, and you sit computer-based exams weekly or every two weeks, plus a cumulative end-of-block (EOB) exam built with the NBME. Some courses also use assignments, practicals and OSCEs, structured exams in which you are observed performing clinical tasks.

From Phase 2, grades are Honors, High Pass, Pass, Conditional or Fail. Clerkships rate you in four areas: medical knowledge, clinical skills, clinical reasoning and communication. Honors needs the excellence threshold in at least three and High Pass in at least two, with the standard met in professionalism and practice-based learning. Each core clerkship ends with an NBME subject exam in that field, or shelf exam, taken in person at the college, and failing it twice means failing the clerkship.

Results reach residency programs through the Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE), the college's summary of your performance in medical school, which includes narrative comments from your clerkship year. For the Class of 2028 onward it reports Phase 2 as Exceptional, Outstanding or Commendable, based on Excellences, the marks of top performance set out in each clerkship syllabus. You can earn up to four per clerkship, weighted by length to a maximum of 88, and Exceptional needs 66 or more, with at most one Pass.

Step 1 has been pass/fail since January 26, 2022; Step 2 CK is still scored. As an MD student, your program's LCME accreditation is what makes you eligible to sit them, though DO and international students qualify by other routes. You must pass both to graduate. You must sit Step 2 CK no later than 30 days before your residency applications are due, and record a pass at least three days before graduation.

In August 2026 the USMLE program announced a move to designated testing dates from January 2029, with Step exams offered less often each year. That replaced a June 2026 plan to start in 2028, and the USMLE has asked schools to review rules that limit when students can take the exams.

On the current schedule, projected from the 2026-27 and 2027-28 calendars, a 2027 entrant would study for Step 1 from about mid-February to late March 2029. You would sit it by the end of that block, so by about late March 2029, within a few months after the switch. Step 2 CK, under the 30-day rule, would also fall after the switch.

• Second chances in Phase 1: a one-time Safety Net Program in Scientific Foundations of Medicine and, in other science courses, up to two attempts at the end-of-block exam within yearly limits. A failed first-year course is usually made up in the summer, a second-year one before Step 1 study.
• An average of 71% or below on a course's assessments qualifies you for extra academic support.
• A July 2026 policy covering the Class of 2029 adds an Academic Distinction note to the MSPE for a weighted EOB average of at least 91%.
• A pilot competency-based growth pathway, created in 2022, replaces tiered clerkship grades for the students in it. A coach and an entrustment committee review their ratings, and the transcript shows Benchmark Achieved or Fail.
• In every clerkship you log required procedures and patient encounters in MedOneStop, the college's online system. Anything missing by 5 p.m. on the day before the shelf exam costs 5% of your final grade.
• Each core clerkship and required acting internship includes a feedback session near its midpoint.
• Obstetrics and gynecology ends with an OSCE as well as the NBME exam.
• The CCX is normally sat in the summer of the Phase 3 year, after the core clerkships, with up to two retakes.
• You get up to four attempts at Step 1 and at Step 2 CK. After a first Step 1 failure, you cannot return to clerkships until you have sat it again.
• A repeated clerkship can earn only Pass or Fail.

The Student Handbook lists the affiliated health systems as UC Health, Cincinnati Children's, The Christ Hospital, Good Samaritan Hospital and the Cincinnati VA. A July 2026 college list of inpatient sites also includes TriHealth's Bethesda North Hospital, The Christ Hospital Liberty and the Drake Center.

UC Medical Center, on UC Health's Clifton campus, has 724 licensed beds and is a verified Level I adult trauma center. Cincinnati Children's says its staff make up the university's entire Department of Pediatrics, and the Cincinnati VA Medical Center names the college as its primary academic affiliation. At Good Samaritan, TriHealth's internal medicine residency says UC students rotate regularly with its inpatient teams and outpatient resident clinic.

Where you go depends on the clerkship. The 2026-27 surgery syllabus lists seven sites, from UC Medical Center to Bethesda North and West Chester. Obstetrics and gynecology places you at one of six hospitals in the Tristate, the three-state area around Cincinnati. The psychiatry department says you are assigned to two of UC Medical Center, the Cincinnati VA, Cincinnati Children's, the Lindner Center of HOPE (a mental health center in Mason) and West Chester Hospital.

Under a July 2026 policy, sites are assigned with your preferences in mind and are final unless extenuating circumstances arise. Expect to travel: the transportation policy says some required activities take you to a preceptor's office, a clinical site or a community partner, so you need reliable transportation. Your required acting internship, and at least four weeks of intensive clinical experiences, must be done in Cincinnati.

Most electives start in Phase 2. You choose two 2-week specialty electives from 15 options, including anesthesiology, dermatology, emergency medicine, geriatrics, ophthalmology, pathology, radiology and urology. They are graded pass/fail and meant for career exploration. You can use the time for an approved research project or for flex time, though flex weeks taken here come off your Phase 3 flex time. Since 2026-27 you can also take a Phase 3 elective if you meet its prerequisites.

Some are hands-on. The emergency medicine elective has seven shifts in UC's main emergency department, two of them overnight, and ends with an oral boards-style case exam. In pathology you observe one autopsy and give a 20-minute presentation.

In Phase 3, electives earn two or four weeks of credit, and some run part time over a longer period. Away rotations, electives at other medical schools that some specialties encourage, can make up to 16 weeks of Phase 3. You apply through the AAMC's Visiting Student Learning Opportunities service. An away acting internship counts as intensive clinical credit but not as your required acting internship. Virtual away electives of two to four weeks are open once you finish the core clerkships.

A longitudinal elective, which spans more than one academic year, can start in Phase 1 and earns Phase 3 credit, and you may enroll in only one. The family medicine department says the Medical Spanish/Latino Health Elective runs from January of year 1 to the end of year 3. The college's Global Health office lists another, Foundations in Global Health, which starts in the fall of year 1. It includes two weeks abroad with a partner in Guatemala or Tanzania, with four places for each country.

For global health, the family medicine department lists fourth-year electives in Guatemala and Tanzania, Spanish-language options in Tijuana and Peru, and Indian Health Service sites in the Navajo Nation and Choctaw Nation. The Global Health office says the Guatemala, Tanzania and Indian Health Service electives can earn Intensive Clinical Experience credit.

The Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) is the MD/PhD route. As the program describes it, you complete the first two years of medical school, move into PhD research in one of 11 graduate programs, then return for clinical training. Its FAQ puts the average length at eight years, and the 2026 class profile lists 12 MSTP students.

MSTP research rotations come in the summer before medical school and the summer after the first year. Your first- and second-year courses count toward the PhD's credit hours, so you usually enter graduate school as a second-year student. A 2019 policy allows at most six years for the PhD and ten for the whole program.

The MD-MPH takes five years. You apply in the late fall of year 1 and take a longitudinal course on the history and ethics of public health. You then spend a full year on the MPH between the third and fourth years. It covers 19 credit hours of core courses, at least 16 more in one of seven concentrations, supervised work with a community partner, and a capstone or thesis.

The MD/MBA, run with UC's Carl H. Lindner College of Business, adds training in the economics, finance, marketing and management of health care. You apply in your second or third year, and the program's pathway page describes five years, with a full-time MBA year before your final year of medical school.

There are about 20 MSSP tracks, from allergy to transfusion medicine, and first-year students apply in the fall. Each track adds clinical, classroom, service and scholarly activities and a summer research project between years 1 and 2, aimed at publication or presentation. Completing it earns an MSSP distinction at graduation, and it cannot be combined with another summer program.

IMPAcT, announced in November 2025, began with two pathways that run through graduation: Healthy Communities, and Humanities and Arts in Medicine. Each takes up to eight first-year students, who apply between December and February, and offers workshops, hands-on learning, mentors and a scholarly project.

• The college calls the summer after year 1 an ideal time for research and runs a fall series of events to help first-year students find a project. Second-year students present their work at the Research and Service Symposium each November.
• With approval you can spend up to a year away on research or other enrichment, a status called Program Related Activity. If you start it after year 2, you must sit Step 1 first. Students enrolled in another degree program cannot use it; a leave for another degree comes under the Leave of Absence Policy.
• The May 2024 MSTP handbook requires MSTP students to pass Step 1 by December 1 after their second year, and to defend their dissertation and publish a first-author paper before returning to clinical training.

The Simulation Center, on the E-level of the Medical Sciences Building, supports Clinical Skills. It has high-fidelity SimMan manikins for practicing emergency care and task trainers for skills such as lumbar puncture, intubation and central lines, as well as standardized patients. Clerkships including pediatrics, internal medicine, psychiatry, surgery and family medicine also use it to teach basic skills.

The Medical Sciences Building opened in 1974 and the CARE/Crawley Building in 2008. Exam venues include the CARE/Crawley G-Level Labs and the Simulation Center. Every inpatient clinical site must give you access to study rooms, call rooms and secure storage.

The Office of Student Affairs handles academic support, career advising, financial services and wellness, and advises on the Match, the national process that places graduates in residencies. Its Academic Success team offers consultations with learning specialists, peer tutoring, and workshops on study methods. The first week of each course includes a Pro-Tips session where peer leaders share resources and strategies.

For Step 1, the assistant dean for Academic Success and a learning specialist run group sessions and offer individual advice and sample schedules. The Health Sciences Library gives you free access to a practice question bank. Every second-year student is enrolled in a free, ungraded, student-led board review course, in small groups for two hours a week through the spring. Attendance is encouraged but not mandatory.

Career advising follows the AAMC's Careers in Medicine model across all four years. Phase 1 brings career panels, a CV workshop and a specialty open house. In Phase 2 you are assigned a Career Advisor, and later come class meetings on the Match and mock interviews.

Wellness support includes an embedded counselor from UC's Counseling and Psychological Services and a Wellness Resource Room with a massage chair, light therapy and meditation cushions. You can report duty-hours problems to your clerkship director or Student Affairs, or anonymously through the ALERT system. Medical students vote on every curriculum committee except the Education Program Committee.