• Home
• Accepted Students
• Advice
• Alumni
• Application
• Contact Us
• Course Info
• Faculty
• FAQs
• GU SOM
• Links
• Message Forum

Curriculum at the School of Medicine

Like most major medical schools, Georgetown University School of Medicine is continually reforming the curriculum to produce a more integrated program that will enhance the student's problem-solving abilities, and build a strong connection between the basic and clinical medical sciences. The first year of major curricular changes (2008-2009) went well, and the SMP students did a great job with the rigorous integrated curriculum, and the non-cadeveric gross anatomy was a huge success.

Things that stayed the same:

• The SMP students take a major portion of the M1 basic science curriculum with the medical students.
• Grading is set against the performance of the medical students (Honors = A, etc).
• The content of first year curriculum was largely unchanged, despite the change in format.
• The overall medical Physiology content remained intact in the revised curriculum. The information was further developed in a new spring graduate course in Advanced Physiology & Pathophysiology.
• Student support, advising and graduate courses is at the same high level as always.

Things that changed:

• SMP students take six medical courses instead of five, and the new courses are now integrated with material from the different disciplines.
• Grades from 3 medical courses, instead of two, are now available to medical schools after the fall semester, and all of the medical courses will be completed by the end of March.
• SMP students now have the relevant Gross Anatomy components (full lectures with faculty facilitated labs and multiple on-line resources, but without cadaveric dissection-- however, prosected cadavers are viewed). This is a new and exciting addition to the SMP curriculum, and is a great addition to the SMP educational experience.
• The new medical courses now include a Biochemistry component.
• Students do not take a medical Neuroscience course, but instead they take a graduate Introduction to Neurophysiology course in the spring. We have also expanded that curriculum in Fall 2009, to include a Principles of Neuro and Gross Anatomy course, before the gross anatomy of the systems begins.
• Medical courses have more integrative case-based workshops and small group sessions to solidify concepts. The information base will build over the year.
• Several new graduate courses are given to complement the medical courses and provide a strong foundation in the biomedical sciences.

This new program continues to serve the SMP students well, providing the finest medical and graduate education and support towards your career and academic goals.

Integrated SMP Curriculum (includes 6 medical courses)

Medical courses are in BOLD, and the new curriculum integrates relevant concepts of gross anatomy, histology, embryology, biochemistry, and physiology. Graduate courses are in blue type.

Course descriptions

Fall Semester 2010

Molecular & Cellular Physiology (MCP), 3 cr
Metabolism, Nutrition & Endocrinology (MNE), 4 cr.
Medical Immunology & Micro, 2 cr
Fundamentals of Molecular Biology & Genetics, 1 cr           
Biomedical Career Pathways, 1 cr
Physiology Forum, 1 cr
Principles of Gross Anatomy (PGA), 1 cr
Cardiopulmonary Biology (CP), 5 cr (Cardiopulmonary finishes after winter break)

 Total Fall Credits = 18

 Spring Semester 2011           

Gastrointestinal Biology (GI), 2 cr
Renal Biology (Renal), 2 cr
Sexual Development & Repro. (SDR), 3 cr
Adv. Physiol & Pathophysiology, 3 cr
Intro to Neuroscience, 3 cr
Library Research Paper, 2 cr

Total Spring Credits = 15

Total SMP Credits = 33

Class Schedule/Curriculum Format for 2009-2010- Final schedule for fall 2010 will not be available until May, 2010

FALL 2009 (Dates are REAL, block sizes approximate)

* note that CP runs 3 wks before winter break, and 2 wks after winter break

Summary of the curricular changes:

• The overall current course content for Cell & Molecular Physiology, Embryology, Microscopic Anatomy, Human Physiology, Endocrinology, will be integrated into the new medical courses.
• The curriculum will ADD medical Gross Anatomy (with innovative non-dissection lab curriculum and prosected cadavers) and medical Biochemistry components (in MCP and MST courses).
• The current Medical Immunology & Microbiology, Nutrition, Biomedical Career Pathways, and Library Research Paper will remain unchanged in the new curriculum.
• The new curriculum will not include the current Intro to Neurobiology and medical Intro to Neuroscience courses, but instead, in addition to the medical Gross Anatomy and Biochemistry, will include three new graduate courses: Physiology Forum, Advanced Physiology & Pathophysiology and Intro to Neuroscience, which will further support the physiologic science training available for the MS degree

Grading

Grading for SMP students will remain unchanged: it is done in such a way that grades illustrate competence in medical school courses. This is achieved because the SMP student's grades are based on the medical school grading curve. At Georgetown, medical students are graded on a Honors, High Pass, Pass, Low Pass, Fail grading curve. Physiology students are graded based on the medical school scale. The following grade conversion chart illustrates this.

Daily Schedule

The daily schedule varies throughout the year, depending on the classes that are being taken at any given time. However, in general, students can expect to spend 8-12 hours per week in morning classes and 4 hours per week in afternoon classes. All classes take place between the hours of 9 am and 5 pm. Most of the students spend a majority of the rest of the day studying.