The School of Medicine is developing a clerkship curriculum that will prepare students well for residency training and for eventual independent clinical practice. Our goal is to graduate students who enter a diverse array of specialties and programs to meet the various needs of Georgia. The clerkship and fourth-year curriculum are being designed to prepare students for a wide range of career paths, including rural medicine, primary care, competitive residency programs, and subspecialty training.
Years 3 & 4
During year 3, students complete required clerkships that train them in specialties such as internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatry, family medicine, neurology, and pediatrics. We are planning a rural clerkship, where students will spend four to six weeks at one of our rural partners, rotating through all the hospital services and gaining a comprehensive view of how different specialties are practiced in a rural context. We will also have time dedicated to career exploration electives in the third year, where students can explore a specialty of interest or gain experience in the specialty of their choice. In year 4, students complete USMLE Step 2 CK, complete a set of required rotations, and have time for electives to prepare for the specialty of their choice. Students apply for residency, and the year culminates in the Match Week, followed by a capstone pre-internship course that helps students prepare for the transition to residency.
Clinical Partners
We have clinical partners in all five of the regions we recognize as central to our mission: North Georgia, Metro Atlanta, Piedmont, Southwest, and Southeast. Students will complete most of their rotations in three of these regions at our clinical partners in Northeast Georgia, Atlanta, and in and around Athens. Each student will do a rural rotation in the third year at one of our partners in the Southwest or Southeast. Our clinical partners include:
- Northeast Georgia Health System (Gainesville)
- Piedmont (Athens and Atlanta)
- St Mary’s (Athens)
- Northside (Atlanta)
- Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (Atlanta)
- Crisp Regional Medical Center – Cordele
- Additional clinical partners are under development and will be announced as agreements are finalized.
Clerkship Regions
Remediation and Consideration of Suspension or Dismissal Policy