The University of New Mexico School of Medicine MD program

Phase I is built from organ-system blocks, each pairing how the body normally works with the diseases that disrupt it. In the Cardiovascular, Pulmonary, Renal block, for example, the physiology, pharmacology and pathology of the heart, lungs and kidneys are taught together. School policy calls for basic science and clinical faculty to design and teach blocks together where appropriate, and for each topic to show its clinical use. The Class of 2027 handbook describes pharmacology and pathology as threads running through the blocks.

The approach is active and self-directed. You prepare before class with independent learning modules, then apply that work in class through team-based learning, laboratories, peer instruction and case discussions. The Class of 2027 handbook required attendance at team-based learning, labs, small groups, sessions with real or standardized patients and Learning Communities, and strongly encouraged it at the other active sessions.

Clinical skills and reasoning are taught in longitudinal courses that track the blocks. Doctoring runs all four years, from first interviews in year 1 to advanced communication in Phase II and Comprehensive Ambulatory Care in Phase III. Clinical Reasoning runs as three consecutive courses from the fall of year 1 to the fall of year 2. The school says it builds clinical reasoning through a problem-based approach.

In Phase II, teaching moves to the wards and clinics under faculty and resident supervision. Clerkship teaching sessions use active learning, with no more than ten hours of traditional lecture a week, averaged across the clerkship.

School policy shapes a Phase I week. Blocks and longitudinal courses fill no more than 21 scheduled hours, not counting Learning Communities and exams, and at least three half-days stay unscheduled. A block week has 13 to 16 hours of active learning and up to 3 hours of lecture. In a Clinical Reasoning week, active learning drops to 9 to 12 hours to make room for 4 hours of Clinical Reasoning.

Doctoring, including Continuity Clinic, averages 5 hours a week, and pre-class work comes on top. In the Class of 2027 handbook, block quizzes fell on Monday mornings, and most Learning Communities sessions are on Tuesday afternoons.

Clerkship weeks are longer. The 2023-24 Phase II handbook capped work at 80 hours a week, with one day off in seven or four days off across four weeks. None of its clerkships had overnight call, but some had evening or night shifts.

In that handbook, internal medicine teams were on call every other day at UNM Hospital and every fourth day at the VA, but students had to leave by 10 pm. Pediatrics could assign up to five night-team shifts, which ran from noon to midnight, and psychiatry required two evening or weekend shifts in the psychiatric emergency service. Obstetrics and gynecology gave each student a week of night float, working 6 pm to 7 am on labor and delivery.

Anatomy is taught mainly in Clinical Morphology, a nine-week block at the start of year 1 (August to early October in the Class of 2027 calendar). It covers normal human anatomy, histology, embryology and imaging as they apply to clinical practice. Teaching mixes large- and small-group interactive sessions with dissection laboratories, where students dissect donated bodies. The 2026-27 university catalog adds guided prosections, specimens dissected in advance to show particular structures.

The bodies come through UNM's Body Donation Program. It says donated bodies are used to teach anatomy to students in UNM's professional health programs, and it calls dissection a critical part of medical student education. Anatomy returns in later blocks: the nervous system block includes neuroanatomy, and the reproduction and endocrinology block covers reproductive anatomy.

Doctoring 1A, in the fall of year 1, teaches how clinicians build a relationship with a patient, take a history, examine, list problems and present findings. You practice on standardized patients first, so you try these skills in a safe, supervised setting before you see patients in a clinic.

In the spring, Doctoring 1B moves you into clinical roles. The 2026-27 university catalog describes it as an introduction to a primary care clinic and a community health center, where you observe and practice patient evaluations with a primary care physician as mentor. Continuity Clinic 1 and 2 pair you with physicians who have long-term relationships with their patients. In the Class of 2027 calendar, it ran from April of year 1 to late March of year 2.

PIE follows year 1, from July to mid-August in the newest calendars. In year 2, Doctoring 2A teaches focused gastrointestinal and neurological histories and examinations alongside those blocks, and Doctoring 2B adds clinical ethics while you consolidate your skills. A Transitions block then prepares you for the clerkships.

Phase I is graded Credit or No Credit, the school's pass/fail. Under the 2024 promotion policy, Credit needs at least 75% on a block's knowledge-based portion and 70% on its peer evaluation; some courses grant Credit for attendance, participation and assignments. The school's 2025 grading summary for residency programs says no class rank is set in Phase I. It adds that scores are tracked for Phase I Honors, which needs an average of 90% or more, Step 1 taken by the deadline and good professionalism standing.

Every block has weekly low-stakes quizzes that count toward the grade, practice assessments that do not, and a comprehensive final exam built from NBME questions whenever possible. The NBME, the National Board of Medical Examiners, co-sponsors the USMLE and writes subject exams used by medical schools. In the Class of 2027 handbook, each quiz had about 40 Step 1-style questions and was worth 5% of the block grade. If you fall short you get one retest, and a passed retest is capped at 75%.

Graded Phase II and III rotations use a four-point scale: Outstanding (4.0), Good (3.0), Satisfactory (2.0) or Fail. To progress you need Satisfactory or better in every one and a pass in all three Phase II OSCEs, and Phase II grades produce a class rank. Each core clerkship has an NBME subject exam, or shelf exam, which you must pass; a score at or below the 5th percentile means a retake. In the 2023-24 handbook, clerkship grades combined clinical evaluations (50%), the shelf exam (15%) and clerkship-specific work (35%).

Step 1 has been reported only as pass or fail for exams taken on or after January 26, 2022. You sit it by the school's deadline at the end of the year 2 study block, and under the promotion policy you must pass it, within three attempts, to continue in the clerkships. The same grading summary says you may test up to eight weeks after the deadline without delaying graduation, taking the one or two clerkships you miss in year 4. You must also pass Step 2 CK 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. Its June 2026 announcement had named 2028.

The school's newest posted calendars, for the Classes of 2025 to 2027, put the Step 1 deadline in early or mid-May of year 2. Step 2 CK study came after Phase II ended in May of year 3. Projecting from them, on the current schedule, a student entering in 2027 would have a Step 1 deadline around May 2029, a few months after the switch. Their Step 2 CK study window would fall around mid-2030.

UNM Health describes UNM Hospital in Albuquerque as the primary teaching hospital for the School of Medicine. UNM Health calls itself New Mexico's only academic medical center and also runs Sandoval Regional Medical Center in Rio Rancho and more than 30 clinics around the state. UNM Hospital is a Level I trauma center and includes UNM Children's Hospital. Its adult Critical Care Tower has 192 beds, 96 of them for intensive care, and was designed to give medical students and other learners hands-on experience.

The Raymond G. Murphy VA Medical Center in Albuquerque lists UNM as its primary academic affiliation, and in the 2023-24 handbook the internal medicine clerkship ran either at UNM Hospital or at the VA. The psychiatry department lists rotations on the University Psychiatric Center's adult and geriatric units, at the Children's Psychiatric Center, on the VA's acute adult unit and in consultation work at Sandoval Regional Medical Center.

Time outside Albuquerque is built in. You spend six weeks in a rural community on PIE, and the family medicine department lists rural and Indian Health Service site options for its clerkship. In the 2023-24 handbook, a rural family medicine rotation came with paid housing and one paid round trip, and students could be asked to live outside Albuquerque for the clerkship if its needs required.

RUUP students get selected clinical training sites in medically underserved communities, and the school notes that 32 of New Mexico's 33 counties are considered medically underserved. In the 2023-24 handbook, RUUP options sat inside clerkships, such as general surgery at a rural hospital. For Medicine in New Mexico in year 4, students in 2023-24 joined a doctor's practice, usually outside the UNM system, and the Phase III handbook called a rural site ideal but not required.

Electives are concentrated in Phase III. You take four, each lasting four weeks. The school says more than 17 departments offer over 50 elective options, clinical and non-clinical, meant to strengthen your residency application, and that the sub-internship has more than 20 options across nine departments. Away rotations, electives taken at other institutions, also earn credit, and the 2026-27 university catalog has a course for recording approved fourth-year rotations elsewhere, including international ones.

In the 2023-24 Phase III handbook, you planned the year with a Match Advisor, a clinician in your chosen field. You were advised to schedule a sub-internship or elective in that specialty by September, so you could ask for a letter of recommendation. Courses outside the catalog needed approval in advance, some away rotations needed a petition to the Committee on Student Promotion and Evaluation, and a research elective could count toward elective credit.

Every student completes a Mentored Scholarly Project, a graduation requirement. With a UNM faculty mentor, you frame a question, review the literature, plan methods and analysis, collect and analyze data, and present your results publicly before graduation. The Class of 2027 handbook says choosing a topic, finding a mentor and proposing the project begin in Phase I. In the 2023-24 Phase III handbook, the final product was due March 1 of the last year, as a paper, a paper for publication, or an oral or poster presentation.

The MD/PhD begins with Phase I, except that you spend the summer after year 1 on laboratory research rotations instead of PIE. Its handbook, revised in March 2025, expects at least two rotations by the end of that summer and Step 1 in May of year 2. The 2024 promotion policy says you must pass Step 1 before the PhD. Three to five PhD years follow, then the last two years of medical school.

The handbook puts the whole program at seven to nine years, and the program's director gives an average of 7.5 years. Each degree is usually awarded in the semester you finish it. You choose from over 100 research laboratories in six divisions, from neurosciences to toxicology and pharmaceutical sciences, and five places in each entering class are reserved for MD/PhD applicants.

The MD/MPH adds a Master of Public Health through UNM's College of Population Health. The college says you take the first three years of medical school, then a year of MPH courses before your fourth year, and finish both degrees in that final year. That makes the five years of integrated learning the university catalog describes, aimed at reducing health disparities in New Mexico and strengthening doctors' advocacy and leadership in health policy.

You apply to both programs and must be admitted to each. You must pass Step 1 before starting the MPH, and the catalog lists a four-week MD/MPH practicum with a public health professional, 160 hours in total.

The Standardized Patient Program, started in 1979, trains people from the Albuquerque community to portray patients for teaching and testing, and its pool now has 100 standardized patients aged 21 to 87. Encounters are recorded, and the Assessment and Learning office schedules times for you to review your recordings and keeps test files and keys for you to study.

The school's BATCAVE healthcare simulation program has two classrooms, three adult simulation labs, a pediatric simulation lab, three infant simulation labs and a birthing simulator lab. It runs life support classes and simulation-based teaching and assessment, and the American College of Surgeons accredits it as a Level 1 education institute.

Day to day, Fitz Hall is the base for medical students. It houses the Office of Medical Student Affairs and lockers for first- and second-year students. Its basement lounge has a microwave, refrigerator, ping pong and foosball, and the Nook offers free coffee and snacks funded by the alumni association. The Health Sciences Center gym on North Campus is open around the clock with your badge.

UNM Health Sciences' January 2026 data book counts 103 students entering the MD in 2025, the usual class size in recent years. UNM plans a new School of Medicine building to replace Fitz Hall, and in January 2026 its planners gave fall 2030 as the planned move-in date, depending on funding. In October 2026 UNM said the building could let the school grow to as many as 200 students a year. If that timetable holds, it would open during a 2027 entrant's final year.

In Learning Communities, House meetings mix professional identity and clinical skills work with advising, combined meetings link your House with those in other classes, and there are wellness activities with your whole class. In the 2023-24 clerkship year, House meetings were used to debrief clinical experiences, prepare for OSCEs and think through specialty choice. The Learning Communities logo is the Zia symbol, used with permission from Zia Pueblo, and each class's four Academies are named Seasons, Earth, Life and Time.

The Office of Medical Student Affairs assigns you an advisor for all of medical school, who helps with schedule planning, policies, leave requests and the residency application. Its staff list names a career advisor for each of the four Academies.

The Applied Cognition in the Medical Sciences Program uses cognitive science to help you learn. Its learning specialists coach study habits, test-taking, test anxiety, time management, and clinical and communication skills, and it runs workshops for Step 1 and Step 2. Free peer tutoring, usually two sessions of two to three hours a week, covers the first-year curriculum and, on a limited basis, the second. For dedicated Step 1 study, the school provides resources including UWorld, Pathoma and some NBME self-assessments.

The Office of Professional Well-Being offers workshops on time management, communication, sleep, financial wellness and resilience, along with confidential mental health resources for learners and faculty.