UC Irvine School of Medicine

UCI teaches through iTEACH, a systems-organized curriculum that weaves coordinated simulation, ultrasound, and clinical-skills modules into the basic sciences. Alexa Lucas and Steven Tohmasi describe meeting each organ system twice before boards, first in normal function and then in disease, with every lecture recorded for review at home.

Clinical skills start early through PACE, a longitudinal rotation for all first- and second-year students in which they work weekly alongside primary care preceptors. Steven called it one of the things that drew Steven to UCI: steady, real patient contact well before third-year rotations.

Every UCI medical student completes a four-year ultrasound curriculum, from basic scanning to advanced point-of-care skills. UCI reports that since 2011 more than 250 of its students have traveled to over 10 countries to teach ultrasound to students, residents, midwives, and physicians.

Steven spent the summer after first year teaching an ultrasound course at the University of Basel; that year, teams also went to Panama, Tanzania, and Indonesia. Alexa led a Tanzania trip and calls the global health side of UCI "super unique and incredible."

UCI Medical Center in Orange is the school's principal teaching hospital: 456 beds, Orange County's only Level I trauma center, a verified regional burn center, and an NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center.

UCI also trains 863 residents and fellows, so students learn inside a large academic medical community. Arnie Shah found the administration unusually responsive, acting on student feedback "promptly."

PLEXUS, UCI's student-run medical humanities and arts journal, publishes essays, poetry, and art each year from students, faculty, and patients. Students also describe active interest groups such as the Emergency Medicine Interest Group and mentoring programs like Elephant Mentors, which pairs medical students with high school girls from underserved communities.

The students describe a close class (Arnie says it "feels a lot more like family") and a location that makes balance easy: the beaches at Laguna and Newport are minutes away, with Los Angeles and San Diego about 90 minutes in either direction.