The UConn School of Medicine MD program

MDelta is built on active learning. The APP Manual calls team-based learning (TBL) the primary pedagogy and the curriculum tightly integrated, with basic, clinical, behavioral and social sciences taught together. It also names problem-based learning (PBL), where a small group works through a case to decide what it needs to learn. The curriculum page says MDelta relies less on lectures.

In TBL you prepare before class, then apply that knowledge with a diverse team. Teams explain their reasoning and weigh other teams' decisions, facilitators keep groups on track, and content experts step in on the hardest topics. Preparation is supported by remote active learning materials, which the school calls ReALM.

Each COrE course builds on the last, using index cases and virtual patients to cover foundational science, organ system physiology and disease, pharmacology, biostatistics and epidemiology, law and ethics, and clinical medicine. Health Systems Science, on health policy, how care is delivered, population health and health equity, began with the class that entered in fall 2024, combining two earlier programs.

In Stage 2 you learn on clerkship teams alongside residents and fellows. Health Systems Science continues as what the school calls a clerkship within other clerkships, and radiology is taught alongside the rotations.

In Stage 1 you are assigned to one of three learning communities, labeled A, B and C, which sets your weekly timetable. Each schedule has 22 contact hours, and attendance at every scheduled session is mandatory. The APP Manual expects 50 to 60 hours of academic work a week in all, so more than half your week falls outside scheduled sessions.

In the school's sample first-year timetables from 2025-26, Learning Community A has COrE on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, labs on Monday and Tuesday, and Health Systems Science on Tuesday. DoCC and Scholarship and Discovery, the research skills course, fall on Wednesday, and Thursday is the CLIC half-day.

Health Systems Science takes two to four hours depending on the week. The other communities arrange the same sessions on different days, and the first two weeks of Block A follow a different schedule.

Anatomy sits in FabLab, which has a course in each Stage 1 block. It covers gross anatomy, virtual anatomy and histology, the study of tissue under the microscope, plus early radiology and ultrasound.

Gross anatomy is taught by cadaveric dissection in the Human Anatomy Lab (HAL), meaning students dissect donated bodies themselves. The Virtual Anatomy Lab (VAL) lets you correlate what you see in dissection with X-ray, CT, MRI and ultrasound images.

In the VAL, Anatomage virtual cadaver tables show life-size bodies in axial, sagittal and coronal slices. Sixteen radiology workstations, one for each team in the learning community, open a library of de-identified patient scans that teams can share with the class.

Ultrasound sessions on classmates and patient instructors cover musculoskeletal, cardiac, lung, abdominal and pelvic anatomy. The curriculum uses the Butterfly iQ, a hand-held ultrasound device that plugs into a cell phone. The VAL also hosts physiology labs on EKGs, lung function, electromyography, exercise physiology and evoked visual potentials.

Bodies come from UConn Health's Anatomical Donation Program, which accepts donors who die in Connecticut. They are embalmed, stored securely and never sold or loaned. Afterward the remains are cremated at UConn Health's expense and the ashes returned to the family. Each academic year ends with a memorial service attended by students, faculty and donors' families.

In CLIC, students are paired with a physician in an outpatient practice for half a day each week, with a focus on primary care. The curriculum page and APP Manual say it begins within a month of starting medical school, and the admissions FAQ says one month after. The About Us page says students meet their first patient on the first day.

CLIC is where you use the skills you learn in DoCC on real patients. It lasts at least three years. In the final six months of third year you may move to a subspecialty site, and you can continue CLIC in fourth year as an elective.

Health Systems Science adds time with patients living with chronic illness, visits to local communities and observing other health professionals. Clinical shadowing is not allowed until you complete Block A and its LEAP.

Outside the curriculum, students run free clinics. Five students and an attending physician staff the South Park Inn Medical Clinic at a Hartford homeless shelter on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Students also volunteer at the Migrant Farm Workers Clinic.

Stage 1 is pass/fail. During each LEAP you sit an integrated exam across your courses. A Block Assessment Review Committee reviews results without seeing names and sets reassessment or enhancement plans, then course grading committees assign grades. For each exam you see your score, the class mean and the pass mark, and small-group courses add written narrative feedback.

From Stage 2, most clerkships add Honors to Pass and Fail: in family medicine, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, psychiatry, surgery, neurology and radiology, and in each Stage 3 core rotation. Each clerkship sets in advance how its evaluation, exam and assignments count, and everyone who reaches the Honors mark receives it.

Stage 2 shelf exams, used in every clerkship except radiology and geriatrics, need a score at or above the 5th percentile. A first failure means a retake, an In Progress grade and no Honors, with the second attempt noted in your MSPE. A second exam failure takes you out of clinical work to remediate unless the Academic Advancement Committee decides otherwise. The end-of-Stage-2 clinical skills assessment resembles the Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) other schools use, where you are scored on a series of patient encounters.

On the USMLE, Step 1 covers the sciences behind medicine and has been pass/fail since January 26, 2022. Step 2 Clinical Knowledge (CK) covers clinical medicine and is scored, with a passing score of 218 from July 1, 2025. You must pass each Step within three attempts.

Step 1 must be taken by Kickoff, which the APP's Step policy treats as the official start of Stage 2, and a failure means stepping out of clerkships until you pass. Step 2 CK follows Stage 2.

On the current schedule, a student starting in August 2027 would finish Stage 1 around February 2029, sit Step 1 in spring 2029 and start clerkships in about May. Step 2 CK would follow once Stage 2 ends in 2030, and any delay past March 1, 2031 must be requested in writing.

• 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. For an August 2027 entrant, both Step 1 and Step 2 CK would fall after the change.
• The USMLE program has encouraged schools to review rules that tie progression to when students sit the exams.
• Delaying Step 1 past Kickoff means weekly meetings with a learning specialist and losing your first clerkship; delays beyond six weeks need the Academic Advancement Committee's approval.
• Stage 3 rotations end with exams too, except the pediatrics sub-internship; emergency medicine and the surgery sub-internship add an oral exam.
• Graduation also requires logged procedures, such as three IV placements and three observed pelvic exams, 15 hours of community service and the Clinical Skills Assessment Program, all within six years.
• Your MSPE quartile combines clerkship honors with professional honors in two of three areas: leadership, scholarship and service.
• The Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), which accredits MD programs in the United States, lists the program as fully accredited, with its next survey in 2025-26 (directory updated October 14, 2026). The school's LCME page, written before the visit, says that survey was scheduled for March 23-25, 2026.
• For MD students, LCME accreditation is what makes you eligible to sit the USMLE; DO students and international graduates qualify through other routes.

Stage 1 is based on the UConn Health campus in Farmington, apart from your CLIC half-day in a community or university practice. For Stages 2 and 3, the school assigns sites in advance by lottery and/or by availability of suitable sites. If an assignment clashes with significant personal circumstances, you can ask the clerkship coordinator about a slot elsewhere.

Formal hardship requests, such as for ongoing local treatment or caring for dependents, go to the Assistant Dean for Clinical Medical Education at least 12 weeks ahead. A decision comes within 15 business days, and a move needs spare capacity without disrupting other students.

School sources list the main hospitals differently. The 2026 APP Manual's opening section names UConn Health, Hartford HealthCare (Hartford Hospital and the Hospital of Central Connecticut), Saint Francis Hospital, Manchester Memorial Hospital, Middlesex Hospital and Connecticut Children's. The affiliated-hospitals page describes Connecticut Children's, Hartford Hospital and the Institute of Living, UConn John Dempsey Hospital, the Hospital of Central Connecticut, the Hospital for Special Care and Saint Francis.

The APP's contact table for needlestick and other exposures at affiliated hospitals also lists Backus, Bristol, St. Mary's, St. Vincent's, Waterbury and Windham hospitals. A 2022 neurology clerkship page gave five primary sites, including Charlotte Hungerford and Middlesex Hospital.

During each of the five LEAPs, students cleared to do so take an ILO, a five-day immersion in a faculty-designed topic, including humanities options. Topics change each LEAP; past examples include 3D Printing Technology, Introduction to Immigrant Health, Point-of-Care Ultrasound and UConn Migrant Farm Workers Training.

Clinical electives total 20 weeks across Stages 2 and 3, in any specialty or subspecialty, and you can design your own. You can take them within the UConn system or as away rotations at any other LCME-accredited school, through VSLO (Visiting Student Learning Opportunities), the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) application service.

Global health experiences can count as electives. Taking vacation instead of a third-year elective means making up the weeks in fourth year. Stage 3 offers longitudinal teaching electives, and with the Academic Advancement Committee's approval you can start some Stage 3 rotations or an away elective before finishing Stage 2.

The Primary Care Leadership Track, run by the Office of Primary Care, is a multi-year program for students committed to internal medicine, family medicine or pediatrics. It offers grounding in education, research and leadership, primary care mentorship and room for interests such as disparities, disabilities care and teaching, with the aim of practicing in Connecticut.

The Urban Service Track is a formal two-year curriculum on top of the MD, taking eight to twenty scholars per school. Its FAQ, last updated in 2019, lists seven four-hour learning retreats, a yearly Clinical Skills Boot Camp and two service outreach activities a semester. It adds that scholars are placed at community health centers for their weekly continuity practice where possible, and that no primary care commitment is required. In 2026, applications ran from May 11 to July 3.

Research is built in through the Scholarship and Discovery course and its Capstone Scholarly Project, a mentored project running from first year to fourth. You write a proposal in Stage 1, then carry out the project during eight required weeks in Stages 2 and 3, extendable by four elective weeks. Dual-degree students are usually exempt.

A Capstone can be bench or clinical research, advocacy, the humanities or medical education, provided it fits at least one of Boyer's scholarship domains: discovery, integration, application or teaching and learning. You submit an abstract, scored with a rubric, plus a mentor attestation, a critical reflection and proof of, or a plan for, dissemination. It is graded Pass, Conditional or Fail.

Optional research starts in the summer after first year: protected time for a mentored project of 8 to 10 weeks, not for credit. A Scientific Review Panel judges proposals on merit and announces awards by mid-May, and students on unpaid projects can receive a stipend.

The Scholarly Year, which the APP Manual calls Mentored Scholarly Enrichment, is a leave for up to a year of full-time academic work outside the dual degrees. It opens after you complete Stage 1 and Step 1, usually between stages or after Stage 3, and needs a proposal and a faculty advisor's letter. In most cases it can exempt you from the Capstone. One option is the paid, year-long Post-Sophomore Pathology Fellowship, with autopsies, case sign-outs and laboratory rotations.

The MD/PhD takes eight years in the APP Manual. You join the MD class for Stage 1, adding two eight-week summer research rotations, graduate coursework and a Monday-evening Research Club. Sources differ on the MD/PhD Step 1 deadline: May 1 in the APP, or the end of the four-month flex period on the MD-PhD curriculum page.

The PhD in Biomedical Science takes four years on average, with a monthly CLIC half-day. Thesis research can be done with Jackson Laboratory faculty who hold Graduate School appointments, on the Farmington campus. A January-to-April reintegration with a clinical skills refresher leads into clerkships from May.

• MD/MPH, with a Master of Public Health (5 to 6 years in the APP Manual): in the 2026-27 Graduate Catalog, the public health certificate gives 12 credits of advanced standing. You add six required courses, three to five electives and either a nine-credit thesis or a three-credit capstone.
• MD/MCTR, the MD with a Master of Science in Clinical and Translational Research (5 years): in the 2026-27 catalog, the master's takes one full-time year after three years of medicine. It combines core courses, nine credits of mentored research and electives, and its manuscript, grant proposal and oral defense replace the MD Capstone.
• The APP Manual says the MD/MBA is no longer a combined degree, though you can apply separately to UConn's MBA program.

The Clinical Skills Assessment Program has a ground-floor suite on the Farmington campus set up like a doctor's office. Each exam room has a hospital bed, routine exam equipment, a camera and a microphone, and recordings of your encounters are kept so you can review your progress.

Its 72 patient instructors portray cases, score you and give feedback on communication, history taking and examination. Specially trained patient instructor models teach pelvic, rectal and breast examination with a clinician instructing, and sessions also cover counseling, giving bad news, discussing medical errors and using interpreters.

The Clinical Simulation Center's page, last updated in 2022, describes 4,500 square feet with three simulation rooms and an open bay that can become an emergency department, delivery suite or operating room. You practice procedures such as suturing, intubation and lumbar puncture on task trainers, and scenarios on manikins that breathe, blink, sweat, bleed and seize.

Every medical student is given a new laptop to keep after graduation. The UConn Health Sciences Library has study rooms open 24 hours to students, and librarians help with research, systematic reviews and clinical rounds. A free 24-hour Wellness Center gym sits off the Academic Lobby, near the student-run Husky Harvest food pantry.

Each student is assigned a coach at matriculation, and the relationship lasts all four years. In Stage 1 your coach meets you during each block and each LEAP, reviews your results and evaluations, and helps you set goals. In Stages 2 and 3 you meet at Kickoff and the Homeweeks, and coaches help with mock residency interviews.

Learning specialists help with study skills and time management in all three stages. The Office of Medical Student Affairs offers personal and career advising, compiles your MSPE, supports residency applications and funds summer research and conference travel. The Associate Dean for Health Career Opportunity Programs advises underrepresented minority students.

Career advising starts in Launch and continues in mandatory LEAP sessions built on the AAMC's Careers in Medicine resources. Each clerkship opens with an overview of its specialty, a career fair runs in the fall of third year, and in spring you choose a lead career advisor.

At orientation each first-year is randomly paired with a second-year big brother or big sister, a scheme running since the early 1990s, and trained student volunteers run a Peer Support Group. Confidential counseling through the Student Behavioral Health Service is free, offered off the main campus or by telehealth, by clinicians who do not teach or assess students.