Harvard Medical School

HMS runs two MD tracks. Pathways, the main track, is built around active learning, earlier clinical experience, and a scholarly project that lets every student shape their own route to the degree. HST, offered jointly with MIT, is aimed at students planning careers in biomedical research and leans on quantitative science.

Abraham Cheloff describes a pre-clerkship phase of about 14 months taught as a flipped classroom: students prepare the night before with videos and annotated handouts, then work through cases in groups of four before discussing them as a full society of about 40 with faculty guiding. Class runs 8am–12:30pm four days a week, with Wednesdays spent at a clinical site.

The scale is hard to match: HMS reports 12,589 faculty across the school and its affiliates, and $4.57 billion in grants and contracts spent by HMS and its affiliated hospitals in fiscal 2025, more than half of it federal. Students choose from 200+ electives.

Abraham's strongest impression was the people: faculty who seek out students for mentorship, research, and extracurricular projects. In Abraham's words, the possibilities "truly feel endless," and faculty support makes them reachable.

Unlike most medical schools, HMS owns no hospitals. Students train across 15 affiliated hospitals and research institutes, including Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston Children's Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess, and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Clinical work starts early. Abraham spent first-year Wednesdays in a longitudinal primary care clinic, practicing histories and exams on inpatients, and examining volunteer patients in "round-robins," and could add shifts at the student-faculty clinic. The core clerkship year (the Principal Clinical Experience) followed after just over a year; Abraham felt "extremely prepared" walking in.

Every student joins one of five Academic Societies, small learning communities that pair academic advising with a home base. Abraham credits pass/fail grading through the pre-clerkship and core clerkship phases, with no class ranking, for a collaborative class where friendships form easily, from the first-year class music video to FABRIC, the multicultural show staged for admitted students.

Aid is substantial: for 2025–26 the average HMS scholarship was $65,442, and the Class of 2025 graduated with average debt of $119,656, against national averages above $190,000. Even during clerkships, scheduled "flex" afternoons leave room for appointments and errands.