The University of Central Florida College of Medicine MD program

Every course is built on three domains. Basic sciences explain how the body works and how disease disrupts it. Clinical sciences teach you to communicate with patients, examine them and reason toward a diagnosis. Health system sciences cover ethics, patient safety, medical informatics and systems thinking.

The Integrated Sciences course pages describe a case-based, clinical problem-solving approach, with anatomy and clinical skills taught together. The college describes its teaching model as case-directed learning (CDL), flipped classrooms and clinical teaching. September 2026 M1/M2 minutes also report two team-based learning (TBL) sessions each in Foundations and Integrated Sciences 3 so far. Some content comes as online self-learning modules (SLMs), and July 2026 M1/M2 minutes mention ScholarRx online lessons called Bricks.

Narrative medicine, which uses close reading and reflective writing, is built into the pediatrics, internal medicine and psychiatry clerkships, and nutrition teaching runs through all four years. According to July 2026 M3/M4 minutes, a new Advanced Clinical Skills and Professional Development course runs across Years 3 and 4. It merges the Year 3 to 4 transition course, the Year 3 intersession weeks and the Year 4 boot camp, and adds residency career advice.

Anatomy is built into the Integrated Sciences courses and taught mainly through cadaveric dissection in the 8,100-square-foot Anatomy Lab, which has 22 dissection tables. Screens beside the tables give access to a digital dissection manual, and a virtual cadaver table shows normal anatomy, CT images and hundreds of examples of pathology in 3D.

In Integrated Sciences 1, dissection labs cover the bones, joints, muscles, ligaments and tendons. September 2026 M1/M2 minutes report that the course now has cadaver labs in weeks 7, 9 and 10, an anatomy-focused CDL and a separate anatomy assessment. Integrated Sciences 4 includes gross brain dissections. From 2026-27, a pathology-led autopsy and clinical correlation project, approved by the Curriculum Committee in August 2026, runs through Integrated Sciences 1 to 5 and ends in a graded report in Integrated Sciences 5.

In June 2026 the Curriculum Committee approved an Anatomy Education Taskforce plan. Labs are split so half the teams attend each session, giving faculty more time at every table. Dissection is targeted at high-yield structures and supplemented by instructor-guided prosection demonstrations, using specimens already dissected by staff. Buddy tables are paired by donor sex to widen what you see, and the plan adds a pre-lab package, imaging sessions, lab practical exams and optional after-hours dissections.

More change may come for 2027 entrants: April 2026 Curriculum Committee minutes report a consensus to propose moving basic anatomy into Foundations, keeping detailed cadaveric dissection in the Integrated Sciences courses, for 2027-28. August 2026 M1/M2 minutes add that a Foundations taskforce is weighing two proposals: keeping the course at 8 weeks with more anatomy, or extending it to 10 weeks. Senior electives include Clinical Teaching Anatomy and an online Advanced Clinical Anatomy course.

Your first patient contact comes in Year 1 through the Community of Practice, a longitudinal program that assigns you to faculty preceptors in practices across Central Florida. As role models, they help you practice patient communication and the physical exam and apply your classroom science to real patients.

You meet standardized patients from Foundations onward, first taking histories and later adding vital signs, focused exams and write-ups of simulated and real encounters. You can also volunteer at the KNIGHTS Clinic, a free clinic coordinated by UCF medical students under licensed supervision.

Policy 9.9.3 lists the methods: multiple-choice exams, written work, projects, OSCEs, direct observation and workplace-based ratings. The college reports no GPA or numerical class rank. Instead, your credit-weighted percentage scores from Years 1 to 3 place you in one of four categories, from Outstanding to Good. That goes into your Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE), the dean's letter sent to residency programs.

Pre-clerkship courses are graded in four tiers, Honors, High Pass, Pass and Fail, with cutoffs at 90%, 80% and 70%, according to June 2026 M1/M2 subcommittee minutes. Almost all students earn Honors or High Pass, the minutes note, and a proposal to raise the Honors and High Pass cutoffs was put on hold for more research. Policy 9.9.3 (February 2025) makes A, B, C and F letter grades the default but lets the Curriculum Committee approve such tiers.

In the clerkships you sit NBME subject exams, known as shelf exams: national multiple-choice tests in each specialty. Failing more than one during the core clerkships removes you from your current clerkship until the promotions committee reviews your case. Psychiatry, for example, grades on preceptor evaluations, the shelf exam and two observed diagnostic interviews.

The United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) is the three-step exam series that state medical boards use in licensing decisions; you take the first two steps during the M.D. program. Step 1 has been reported only as pass or fail since January 26, 2022; you must pass it to enter Year 3, and pass Step 2 CK (Clinical Knowledge) to graduate. Enrollment in an LCME-accredited MD program makes you eligible for both. Students at osteopathic (DO) schools accredited by the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation (COCA), and at non-US schools meeting Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) requirements, qualify through other routes.

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 notice had named 2028. The college's M3/M4 subcommittee noted the delay in August 2026 and is monitoring the effects on curriculum planning and on students' access to local testing centers.

On the current schedule, a student entering in August 2027 would take Step 1 in spring 2029 and start clerkships in early June 2029. Step 2 CK would come after Year 3 ends in late May 2030, due by August 31, 2030 under college policy. This follows the 2026-27 calendars, the latest posted. Both exams would fall after the January 2029 change.

• For 2026-27, weights the Curriculum Committee approved in June 2026 make clinical sciences 25% of the Foundations grade, 30% in Integrated Sciences 1 to 4 and 35% in Integrated Sciences 5.
• September 2026 M1/M2 minutes put each simulated encounter in Integrated Sciences 1 at 10% of the grade. July 2026 M1/M2 minutes set new anatomy practicals at 5% of the grade in Integrated Sciences 2 and 3% in Integrated Sciences 4.
• A T grade is a temporary grade for passing work that needs remediation in one area, or for a clerkship where the NBME exam was failed while other parts were passed. Under a rule the Curriculum Committee approved in April 2026, remediating a T restores your earlier grade, though not Honors.
• January 2026 M3/M4 minutes record approval of a reflective essay, tied to health system sciences, worth 5% of every clerkship grade.
• A surgery clerkship review the Curriculum Committee approved in July 2026 supports planned changes toward one grade make-up for all clerkships. Graded quizzes and the case report would go, while direct observations and two patient write-ups called histories and physicals (H&Ps) would count.
• The end-of-year M3 OSCE is a must-pass exam for graduation. Standardized patients score your communication, history taking and examination; faculty score skills stations such as notes, test interpretation, oral presentations and orders. Falling short means at least two weeks of remediation, finished before Block 4 of Year 4.
• Before Step 1 you meet Student Academic Support Services (SASS) one-on-one to plan your study. A CBSE score below 49% estimated correct means a required SASS program with weekly practice exams. Practice scores below 65% two weeks before Transition to Clerkships bring a four-week study extension that delays Year 3.
• Step 2 CK must be taken by August 31 of Year 4 under Policies 9.9.7 and 9.9.1 and the 2026-27 catalog; Policy 9.9.7 also sets registration by June 30. The 2026-27 curriculum schematic shows it as due by December.
• Attendance Policy 8.8.2 (July 2026), restated in August 2026 M3/M4 minutes, makes taking Step 2 during clinical duties an unexcused absence. May 2026 M3/M4 minutes told third-year students to take it after the post-clerkship week that ends Year 3, a rule they noted was under review.

Clerkships run at hospitals, clinics and private practices around Orlando and at several distant Florida sites. The Curriculum Directors page lists 15 sites for internal and family medicine alone, from HCA Florida hospitals to UCF Health, the UCF Student Health Center and community practices.

Bay Pines VA, HCA Florida North Florida Hospital in Gainesville, HCA Florida Ocala Hospital and NCH Healthcare System in Naples host core clerkships farther away. Each has a UCF Academic Assistant Dean. August and September 2026 M3/M4 minutes report a new psychiatry site at HCA Florida Capital Hospital in Tallahassee, now running, with possible expansion to other clerkships.

Policy 10.9.1 (June 2025) and the 2026-27 catalog describe an online lottery in Year 2: you rank clerkship orders, then locations, with swap periods after each round. Limited hardship requests, decided first, can secure an Orlando Area-Only schedule (which includes Sanford and Lake Mary), a chosen off block or the same order as a partner. The M3/M4 subcommittee's January 2026 minutes instead record no lottery for scheduling, with a worksheet and survey due January 27, 2026 and a separate housing lottery.

Housing Policy 13 (version 3, June 19, 2026) says the college provides housing for third-year students on approved rotations at Bay Pines, HCA North Florida, Jacksonville and HCA Ocala. Year 4 housing depends on availability, and the college does not manage housing at Naples.

In Year 4 you book UCF, VA and private-office electives through the registrar. HCA Florida Osceola Hospital courses go through Clinician Nexus, an HCA platform. Courses at AdventHealth and Orlando Health must be booked through VSLO, the Visiting Student Learning Opportunities service also used for away rotations at other institutions.

Year 3 includes a 4-week clinical selective, chosen from the approved list or arranged as an independent study with UCF-affiliated faculty at an affiliated site. Year 3 selectives cannot be away rotations; those come in Year 4.

The 2026-27 directory, updated August 27, 2026, has 157 course listings, the most at Nemours Children's Hospital in Orlando (35) and the Lake Nona VA (24). They range from acting internships in the neonatal ICU or adult orthopedic surgery to Correctional Medicine, Health Care for the Homeless, Narrative Medicine, Arts in Medicine and Programming for Biomedical Data Science with Python.

Principles of Aerospace Medicine, a 4-week April elective approved by the Curriculum Committee in June 2026, combines lectures and simulation-based ultrasound training with operational exposure at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Culinary Medicine teaches cooking and disease-specific diets with physicians, dietitians and chefs, through a partnership that includes UCF's Rosen College of Hospitality Management. UCF in Peru: Public Health in the Andean Region fits a Year 3 off block or Year 4.

Up to 16 weeks of Year 4 can be away rotations, arranged through VSLO, Clinician Nexus or a petition, and an international elective is possible with approval. Medical Spanish electives, in the summer before Year 2 or in Year 4, include practice in Spanish with standardized patients. In March 2026 the college reported three students passing a national medical Spanish exam.

In September 2026 the M3/M4 subcommittee tentatively approved cutting required electives from 24 to 20 weeks from next academic year, as five 4-week electives or a mix of 2- and 4-week ones. The freed time would go to a 4-week Transition to Internship course, which still needs Curriculum Committee approval. The three optional 4-week blocks would stay.

Research beyond FIRE, such as continuing your FIRE project in Years 3 and 4 or work at another institution, goes through FIRE+. It approves and tracks projects and may help first authors with manuscript, conference or lab fees.

The MD/PhD is a track within the PhD in Biomedical Sciences at the college's Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences. In Years 1 and 2, lab rotations, doctoral research and a graduate seminar replace FIRE. After passing Step 1 you study full time for the PhD, entering as the equivalent of a second-year PhD student, while some clinical training continues. You then return for Years 3 and 4 of the M.D.

The MD/PhD can be finished in as few as six years, though the college's year-by-year plan runs to seven and the Burnett School expects most students to need seven to eight.

Three master's degrees each add a year between Years 2 and 3. The UCF Professional MD/MBA, with the College of Business, is a cohort MBA year at UCF Downtown, taught all day Mondays and Tuesday to Thursday mornings. The MS in Hospitality and Tourism Management (MD track), with the Rosen College, needs at least 33 credit hours. The MD/MSBME is a thesis-only biomedical engineering track for growing your FIRE project into a master's thesis.

The Primary Care Scholars Program, funded by a federal Health Resources and Services Administration grant, is a one-year option for selected M1, M2 and M3 students. Over 50 to 100 hours you choose among workshops, mentoring, underserved care, simulations and clinical work, then complete a scholarly project, such as a policy brief. Its first cohort, in 2025-26, had 30 scholars: 15 from the Class of 2029, 12 from 2028 and 3 from 2027.

The four-story, 170,000-square-foot Medical Education Building opened in summer 2010. It holds the Harriet F. Ginsburg Health Sciences Library, the Anatomy Lab, a Microscopy Lab where you study tissue on virtual slides and a ten-headed microscope, and the Clinical Skills and Simulation Center. The Burnett Biomedical Sciences research building and the UCF College of Nursing share the campus.

The Clinical Skills and Simulation Center has 16 exam rooms, each video-equipped with a one-way glass viewing station, and more than 100 standardized patients. Simulators and manikins teach heart, lung and bowel sounds, drawing blood and placing catheters. For housing, the admissions FAQ points to apartments in the Lake Nona Medical City area and nearby communities.

Advising runs through COMPASS, which combines academic advising, residency career advising, financial advising and personal wellness. At M1 orientation you are assigned a Dean's Advising Academy Leader, who stays your advisor for all four years and guides you one-on-one on academics, career and wellbeing, with structured check-ups. You also choose Residency Career Advisors in specialties you are considering, and must have met at least one by Year 3.

Student Academic Support Services (SASS) offers study-skills and test-taking help, accommodations, Step planning and Peer Academic Coaching from fellow students.

September 2026 M3/M4 minutes describe a Student Development Committee of seven faculty that reviews performance monthly and offers students at risk of a T grade confidential coaching, kept separate from grades and promotion. You can refer yourself. August 2026 M1/M2 minutes add that, after fewer than half of those invited took part, flagged students will be expected to attend at least one mandatory, non-punitive meeting with the coaching director.

Counseling and Wellness Services, at the Lake Nona Cancer Center within walking distance, gives medical students free, confidential counseling, kept separate from academic records. It offers individual, group and couples therapy, psychiatry referrals and crisis help, plus wellness sessions timed to each year, from Step 1 stress to the Match. Trained M2 to M4 students in the Peer Support Program hold walk-in hours every Wednesday at noon.