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MD Program

Course Structures and Assessments

There are five courses within the Application Phase:

Transition Course

Course Directors: Lindsay Wilson, MD, MPH, Co-Director, Christopher Klipstein, MD, Co-Director, and Alice Stone, MAT, Course Coordinator

The transition from the relative safety and security of the classroom to the unstructured settings of clinical medicine is not an easy one. Students often report several challenging aspects of this transition, including the difficulties they encounter in applying clinical knowledge, adjusting to different clinical settings, and understanding new roles and responsibilities. In an effort to address some of these challenges, several course directors and rising Individualization Phase students created the Transition Clerkship. The Transition Clerkship is a required course for all rising Application Phase medical students. Students complete the clerkship during the week prior to starting Application Phase.

Learn More About The Transition Course

Care of Specific Populations Course

Course Directors: Amy Bryant,MD, Dana Doctor, MD and William Mills, MD

The Care of Specific Populations Course (CSP) is comprised of three blocks: ObGyn, Pediatrics and Psychiatry. During these blocks you will participate in care of women, children and patients with psychiatric illness in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Each block is 5 weeks long. Assessments for the Pediatrics and Psychiatry blocks will be incorporated into the respective 5 week time period. The final week, Week 16, will be spent preparing for and taking final assessments for the ObGyn block including shelf exam and OSCE.

Hospital, Interventional, and Surgical Care Course

Course Directors: Luigi Pascarella, MD, and Raquel Reyes, MD

The Hospital, Interventional, and Surgical Care Course (HISC) is comprised of Adult Inpatient Medicine Block and Surgery Block. The Adult Inpatient Medicine Block is composed of clinical experiences on inpatient adult medicine services (general and specialty services). The Surgery Block is composed of clinical experiences on the various general surgery services and surgical sub specialty services.

Community Based Longitudinal Care Course

Course Directors: Yee Lam, MD and Karina Whelan, MD

The Community Based Longitudinal Care Course (CBLC) course is a 16-week longitudinal experience based in outpatient settings The weekly structure includes three primary care clinical days, one self-directed learning day, half a day of time dedicated to quality improvement, and half a day for curriculum or other learning.

Social and Health Systems 4

Course Directors: Amy Denham, MD and Amy Weil, MD

Social and Health Systems 4 (SHS4) is a year-long course, meeting once monthly, that provides a forum in which students can reflect upon and discuss their clinical experiences from various perspectives. The course includes two components: Population Health and RICE (Critical Reflection, Inter-professional Education, Communication Skills and Ethics).

Grading and Assessment

All campuses adhere to the same assessment structure and grading standards. Each course has a Course Committee comprised of the course’s directors, site directors, and a representative for academic assistance. A Course Committee meets at a course’s midpoint to provide formative feedback and its conclusion to determine final grades.

Grading Standards

All Application Phase courses, with the exception of SHS4, use the following grading standards that rely on a 100 point scale. Students who fail will be required to retake the full course.

Honors/High Pass/Pass will be awarded using the following guidelines:

  • Grade Cut-Off Scores (Grades will be rounded to the nearest tenth.)
    • 90 or above = Honors
    • 85 – 89.9 = High Pass
    • 75 – 84.9 = Pass
  • To receive a grade of Pass, a student must achieve the following:
    • an overall score of at least 75
    • a passing score on the shelf exam (if a student fails the shelf, they will have an Incomplete until they retake it and pass)
  • A score of less than 75% for any competency on the Common Assessment Form puts the student at risk of failure or remediation
  • Students must complete all assignments and assessments or risk failure or remediation
  • During the course, students must bring any concerns about grading on quizzes, assignments, or assessments to the attention of the course directors within 15 business days of receiving their score. After this time period, scores on individual assignments cannot be changed.

Grade Breakdown and Assessments

All Application Phase courses, with the exception of the Social and Health Systems 4 Course, use the following guidelines to establish grade breakdowns:

  • 20% – NBME Subject Examination. Failure on the shelf exam will be defined as less than 5th percentile based on most recent available quarterly national data.
  • 10-20% – Integrated Exam*
  • 10-20% – Standardized Patient / Direct Observation Assessment*
  • 30-50% – Clinical Preceptor Assessments*
  • 5-10% – Professionalism
  • 5-10% – Written Assignments

*Any student who scores more than 2.0 SD below the mean on any of the key assessments, indicated above with asterisk, or who demonstrates difficulty with professionalism will be reviewed by the Course Committee for remediation or possible failure.