When deciding to attend medical school, you’ll want to know what you’ll be learning and when. Each institution has its own unique approach, but most Doctor of Medicine (MD) programs follow a four-year curriculum designed to build students’ medical knowledge and prepare them for board exams and clinical practice.
What Do the Four Years of Medical School Consist Of?
Medical school is divided into two parts: preclinical studies and clinical rotations.
Preclinical Years
The first two years of medical school are sometimes called the preclinical years, basic sciences, foundations of medicine, or medical sciences. Regardless of the name, these years are carefully crafted to build students’ foundational medical knowledge and clinical reasoning skills. You’ll take courses in subjects like anatomy, physiology, and pathology for various human body systems. You’ll also examine different body systems, and abnormalities that may occur, through cadaver labs and interactive learning software.
Some schools, like Ross University School of Medicine (Ross Med), incorporate hands-on training into preclinical studies with community service opportunities—like pop-up clinics, home visits, and more—and simulated scenarios using high-fidelity manikins. This immersive approach helps students confidently make logical decisions, interact with patients, improve bedside manner, and ease the transition into clinical practice.
However, before starting your clinical rotations, you’ll need to complete the United States Medical Licensing Examination® (USMLE®) Step 1.
Clinical Years
The last two years of medical school are where you’ll complete your clinical rotations, sometimes called clerkships, and gain experience providing hands-on patient care in real clinical environments. You’ll rotate through several medical specialties at one or more teaching hospitals across the U.S. to deepen your knowledge and reflect on which specialty you want to pursue during residency.
What Is the First Year of Medical School Like?
The first year of medical school will feel overwhelming since you’ll be exposed to a lot of material at once. This year lays the foundation of your medical knowledge, and you’ll dive into a systems-based learning model that’s grounded in biochemistry, molecular biology, histology, pathology, pathophysiology, and more.
Working with your school’s advising or tutoring services in your first year can help you adjust to medical school and create a personalized study plan. At Ross Med, the Academy for Teaching and Learning (ATL) offers small and large group study sessions, peer tutoring, and even remediation courses to help you successfully complete your medical studies.
But the first year at Ross Med doesn’t stop solely at building your medical knowledge. From your first semester, you can practice performing physical exams, taking patient histories, working as part of a team, and much more in our Simulation Institute. Ross Med also offers early exposure to patient interactions through local community service opportunities.
What About the Second Year?
The second year of medical school builds upon everything you learned in the first year, but has a much stronger focus on how the entire body works. Rather than looking only at one body system, you’ll see how every system is interconnected and practice diagnosing the whole patient. You will sharpen your clinical reasoning skills by applying everything you’ve learned to this point to more complex patient scenarios. All of this will prepare you for the Comprehensive Basic Science Examination (CBSE) and USMLE Step 1.
To further support you during this journey, as a Ross Med student, you’ll automatically be enrolled in our Pathways to Step 1 program. You’ll receive personalized advising, tutoring sessions, and small-group reviews to prepare for both the CBSE and USLME Step 1. You’ll need to pass USMLE Step 1 before you can proceed with clinical studies in your third year.
What Clinical Experiences Can You Expect in Your Third Year?
In your third year, you’ll complete your core clinical rotations at one or more affiliated hospitals in the U.S. The exact specialties you’ll need to complete can vary depending on the school. Ross Med’s core clinical rotations include:
- 12 weeks in internal medicine
- 12 weeks in surgery
- 6 weeks in pediatrics
- 6 weeks in family medicine
- 6 weeks in obstetrics and gynecology
- 6 weeks in psychiatry
As you experience these different specialties firsthand, you can clarify your areas of interest and discover which ones you want to pursue for elective rotations the following year. You’ll start your residency applications in your third year, but you’re not expected to submit them until the following year.
Even though you’ll spend a great deal of time in hospitals, you’ll still be expected to keep up with your coursework.
How Does the Fourth Year Prepare You for Residency?
Your final year in medical school is designed to help you narrow down your medical interests, expand your knowledge in your preferred specialties, and decide what specialty you want to pursue in residency. At the start of your fourth year at Ross Med, you’ll work with the Office of Career Advisement (OCA) and apply for accredited residency programs. This will be the start of the National Resident Matching Program® (NRMP®) process, also known as The Match®.
The OCA will help you prepare for interviews and know what to expect throughout the entire process. While this is happening, you’ll also prepare for and take USMLE Step 2 CK.
Match Day is typically in late March, and that’s when you’ll learn where you’ve been accepted.
What Makes Ross Med’s Curriculum Unique?
Even though the core structure is similar to what you’ll find at a medical school in the U.S., Ross Med’s focus on global health, diverse perspectives, and hands-on experiences early in your training creates a one-of-a-kind medical journey.
- Global health: Study in a beautiful island setting and take everything you’ve learned back to the States. Whether it’s through our Clinical Return Home Offer or at an affiliated teaching hospital elsewhere, our training prepares you to treat varied patient populations.
- Diverse perspectives: There are inequities in access to quality healthcare across the globe. Ross Med strives to train a diverse, qualified, and supportive healthcare workforce who advocate for their patients, are open to multiple perspectives, and overcome unconscious biases still rooted in the medical field.
- Rich network of academic support: From your first day at Ross Med, you’ll have access to tutoring services, academic support, group study sessions, and much more.
Ross Med’s MD program isn’t designed just to help students pass licensing exams; it’s made to create compassionate, qualified physicians and leaders who are eager to make a difference in the medical field.
Ready for a program that blends academic rigor with practical learning experiences and continued support? Apply to Ross Med today!
