Tim Tai

While college first years just get to know Yale, those at the School of Medicine near the halfway point of their first 18 months of studies, known as the pre-clerkship phase. 

In the pre-clerkship phase, students take lecture courses and participate in interactive clinical workshops and extracurricular activities, blending numerous ways of learning and interacting with medicine. The News talked to first years at the School of Medicine about their lives inside and outside the classroom. 

“What I like about Yale is that we have so much flexibility built within our curriculum and in our scheduling that gives people a chance to kind of explore the way that they learn, and also explore things outside the classroom,” Dariana Gil-Hernández MED ’28 said. 

“Having this flexible system gives everyone the chance to get involved in different things, like research, volunteering, shadowing, while also learning,” she added.

Master courses

The School of Medicine operates on blocks rather than semesters. 

In each block, all students take a specific master course together — a lecture that covers a variety of science topics. Each master course lasts between four and 12 weeks. 

Since the fall, students have already taken “Intro to Profession,” “Scientific Foundations,” “Genes and Development” and “Attacks and Defenses” and are currently in the “Homeostasis” master course.

One aspect of the School of Medicine’s pre-clerkship curriculum that has helped first-year students feel less stressed throughout the adjustment to the fast-paced curriculum has been the lack of grades.

For many students, such as Gil-Hernández, the absence of grades or class rank at the School of Medicine was a key aspect of their decision to attend and has been a highlight of their learning experience.

“I feel like the most important thing for me was the lack of feeling competition and feeling stressed out about having a grade,” Gil-Hernández said. “I think that taking all of that out and just making sure that we’re focusing on what matters, which is learning and completing our milestones, it’s definitely been life-changing for me.”

Although students learn without grades, each master course has a self-assessment midway through the block and a qualifier, or final, at the end. Self-assessments are online and take-home, and only students know their results as scores are anonymous to professors.

Elaine Yang MED ’28 emphasized that these self-assessments give students an opportunity to check their progress in master courses and receive any necessary help before qualifiers. 

“If you do fail, we have a support system,” Yang said. “Yale calls it our longitudinal coaches, who are our academic coaches. So if you fail a self-assessment, they’ll check in with you before you take the qualifier to see if you need ideas or help planning out a study schedule.”

Gil-Hernández echoed the importance of the robust academic support system for students at the School of Medicine.

She noted that the whole class is also assigned a learning specialist — an advisor who discusses studying habits, future goals and learning preferences while working with students to create a personalized schedule that suits their skills and interests.

Since most of the lectures for master courses are not mandatory, students have more flexibility when it comes to finding a learning style that works best for them. While some students enjoy the more traditional in-class learning experience, others prefer watching recorded lectures at their own pace at home and utilizing third-party resources to supplement their learning.

According to Yang, the experience of learning and trying multiple study strategies has been both rewarding and stressful.

“It’s fun to learn how my classmates study because there’s a lot to be learned from them,” Yang said. “But at times it can feel overwhelming and stressful with how much we need to learn and worry about. Am I doing this right? Is there a more efficient way to do this? That’s a big challenge that I am facing, and I think that a lot of people are, too.”

Longitudinal courses

Apart from master courses, first-year students also take longitudinal courses that extend through multiple blocks and complement their learning in master courses.

From September to December, students focused on the applications of ethics in medical practice in “Professional Responsibility.” From January through their second year, students learn about epidemiology and biostatistics in “Population and Methods.”

Between October and May, students also concurrently take a longitudinal course called “Human Anatomy,” which incorporates interactive small-group sessions to cover cases and anatomical structures through dissection.

Alongside lecture courses, first-year students gain clinical knowledge and experience through a “Clinical Skills” course and Interprofessional Longitudinal Clinical Experience — ILCE.

Clinical Skills consists of both a lecture and small group workshops. Josh Brenne MED ’28 noted that students recently began learning how to complete a physical exam in the course, first learning the specific skills required in the lecture and then transitioning into groups of four students led by two faculty members who guide students in practice.

According to Yang, students practice clinical skills in many ways — on fellow medical students, standardized participants trained to act like patients and real patients.

“These small group workshops really give that advantage where not only do I know the content, but I also feel confident enough that I can understand it and interact with it and teach it to other people,” Gil-Hernández added.

In ILCE, students go to the hospital once a week to practice interviewing real patients and performing physical examination skills. At the hospital, a group of three or four medical students and a physician assistant student pair off to spend time talking with patients about their medical history.

Brenne emphasized that opportunities to spend time with patients in the hospital leave him feeling fulfilled and better prepared for the transition to the clerkship phase next January, where students begin their clinical rotations.

“Sitting in a classroom, it’s more like you’re being a student, but when you actually get to talk to someone face to face, when you try to examine them, it feels a bit more like being a real doctor,” Yang said.

Yang added that a crucial part of clinical assessment and preparation at the School of Medicine is the formative feedback that students receive during their clinical experiences. Preceptors help students sharpen their clinical skills and provide feedback about how students can better communicate with patients.

According to Brenne, last school year the School of Medicine also began piloting high-yield workshops, which allow students to self-select themselves for small group workshops with an interactive spin.

“The consistency of people going to this high-yield session really helps us create a class community, a community within that workshop where we know more about each other and learn the content in a more active way,” said Brenne.

Extracurriculars and community

Yale heavily encourages students to participate in research, with many students already in a lab or currently meeting with PIs, according to Brenne.

While undergraduate students are tasked with deciding on a major to study, students at the medical school must find a specialty that they want to pursue in residency and beyond. To help them with the decision, students shadow a variety of physicians. 

For Yang, joining the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine podcast team helped her find a new career interest in radiation oncology. Through the club, she interviewed a radiation oncologist and became inspired by their conversation to learn more about the specialty and shadow doctors working in the radiation oncology department at Yale.

“I really felt like I could see myself among them. So that gave me a direction to pursue,” Yang said. 

Outside of classes and extracurriculars, first-year students have many opportunities to engage with the community.

Similar to Yale College’s residential college system, the School of Medicine has six advisory houses, formerly known as advisory colleges. 

Students are grouped at random into each house, and the head of the house meets regularly with them to discuss their progress and ensure they are meeting their guidelines. Within each house, coaches are also assigned to six students and meet throughout each master block to help students academically and socially.

Students in each house bond over house dinners and other fun social events throughout the year. 

The class of 2028 has a size of 104 students, which makes it easy for first-year students to build strong connections with their peers.

“I think about when I was an undergrad, and there was no way I was going to get to know everyone,” Gil-Hernández noted. “Now it feels like you have your own community. You get to know people.”

More information about the pre-clerkship curriculum at the School of Medicine can be found online.