4th Year Colleges

As a fourth Year student, you are required to be a member of and complete the requirments of one of the following colleges: Acute Care, Applied Anatomy, Medical Leadership, Medical Specialties, Primary Care, or Urban Underserved. Drew/UCLA students are automatically members of the Urban Underserved College and student is the joint MD/BA or MD/MPH programs are automatically members of teh Medical Leadership College.

The Acute Care College focuses on the knowledge and skills needed to make rapid decisions on acutely ill patients with a focus on the clinical correlation of physiology, anatomy, and pharmacology to acute care. The curriculum consists of the weeklong Foundations Course (AC01) at the beginning of the senior year and the year-long Transition to Internship Course, consisting of monthly meetings that address: (1) didactic sessions focusing on acute management; (2) career preparation seminars; and (3) physician well-being and life strategies after medical school. Typical careers represented by the Acute Care College are anesthesiology; emergency medicine; adult critical care (cardiology, pulmonary medicine and hospitalist); and Pediatric Critical Care (cardiology and neonatology).

The typical careers in the Applied Anatomy College are surgery and surgery subspecilaties (i.e. general, gynecology, head & neck, neurosurgery, oncology, ophthalmology, orthopaedics, plastics, thoracic, urology and vascular); radiology, readiotaion oncology, and pathology. The faculty and students of the Applied Anatomy College are committed to the devlopement of knowledte and skills that will support the choice of a career in those specialties in which expertise in antomy is critical to competency. Through organized activities, including personal advising and counseling, the college will create a meanful adjunctive program for the fourth-year medical school for its students.

The mission of the Medical Specialties College is to develop an individualized educational pathway for those students who are considering a career in subspecialty Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, or in Pathology; or for students who have remained actively engaged in research, enjoyed their STTP summer research project but have not had a chance to continue, or who are considering some type of academic career involving research and teaching. Members of this college include all specialties, including surgical specialties, with a focus on academics.

Primary care is the provision of integrated, accessible health care services by clinicians who are accountable for addressing a large majority of personal health care needs, developing a sustained partnership with patients, and practicing in the context of family and community. The Primary Care College’s mission is to nurture the development of students who are considering a career in primary care as well as those who want a solid foundation in generalist medicine. Members of the Primary Care College include, but are not limited to, those with interests in general internal medicine, general pediatrics, family medicine, obstetrics/gynecology, and psychiatry. As a part of the College, the faculty provide intensive mentoring for students applying for their residency positions, opportunities in community and service-learning activities, international experiences including travel stipends, exposure to public health and public policy, and mentoring on research and other scholarly projects during the fourth year in preparation for Senior Scholarship Day.