State residents are given very strong preference, especially those from small cities, towns, and rural areas. Missouri residency is required for advanced standing positions. Curriculum 4-year semi modern. A 10 week summer vacation falls between blocks 4 and 5. Using a clinical case format, the PBL component integrates the traditional basic sciences.
Students work together to gather and organize information and then to generate and test hypotheses.
Beginning in their first semester, students work with physician mentors and with standardized patients. Students also are assigned to a weekly clinic for an ambulatory care experience. The fourth year has three 8-week required advanced clinical selectives from a medical area, a surgical area, and one other selective. Also required in the fourth year are 8-weeks of advanced biomedical sciences and 12 weeks of general electives. The Medical Library is located in the new Medical Annex and has more than 196,000 volumes.