Major Clinical Year (MCY)

The Major Clinical Year (MCY) features clerkships in major clinical areas paired to promote interaction and continuity and thus optimizing clinical experiences, faculty development, and evaluation practices. For example, obstetrics and gynecology share an eleven-week clerkship block with pediatrics. The clerkships include:

  • Internal medicine (with emergency medicine and ophthalmology)
  • Neurology 
  • Obstetrics and gynecology
  • Pediatrics (with otolaryngology)
  • Primary care
  • Psychiatry
  • Surgery (with anesthesiology)
  • Orthopedics
  • Urology
  • Neurosurgery

Clerkships are divided by two weeklong intersessions called Mechanisms and Practice in which students come together for classroom-based small-group teaching. This design allows students to take a step back from their clerkships and process their experiences, exploring aspects of medicine and health care that run across the different clerkships, such as understanding the patient-physician relationship and accessing as well as using medical literature. This results in a well-rounded, comprehensive learning experience for students.