Education

First-year students hone their powers of observation in a visual tutorial at the Yale Center for British Art, an innovative Yale class emulated at 20 other medical schools. Participants develop greater diagnostic skills by exercising their ability to detect small details.

The School of Medicine educates future leaders in medicine, public health and biomedical science enrolled in its MD and other degree programs (listed below). The MD program follows a unique educational philosophy established in the 1920s by Dean Milton C. Winternitz, MD, known as the Yale system of medical education. No course grades or class rankings are given in the first two years, examinations are limited and students are expected to engage in independent investigation. Yale medical students have been required to write a thesis based on original research since 1839.

Each year, approximately 12 students enroll in the school's MD/PhD Program, one of the original Medical Scientist Training Programs established and funded by the NIH. Within the medical school, the School of Public Health operates as a fully accredited degree-granting institution. Graduate students in the Combined Program in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences earn a PhD degree through the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Students by degree program*

M.D. program details

Medical Library