University of North Carolina School of Medicine

The University of North Carolina School of Medicine is a professional school within the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It offers a Doctor of Medicine degree along with combined Doctor of Medicine / Doctor of Philosophy or Doctor of Medicine / Master of Public Health degrees.

It is one of the top ranked medical schools in the country: the 2010 US News and World Report ranks the school 2nd in primary care and 20th in research. In 2007, the school received $298 million in research funding, with approximately two-thirds coming from the National Institutes of Health.

Curriculum

First Year

The first year curriculum consists of four blocks covering the basic medical sciences. Each block combines daily lectures by faculty from diverse fields, and therefore provides a highly integrated curriculum. The first block, titled Molecules to Cells, includes Cellular and Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, and Genetics. The second, Structure and Development, is primarily an Anatomy course (including human cadaver dissection), but also covers Embryology (the "source" of anatomy) and basic Radiology (a clinically important application of anatomic knowledge). The third block is Integrative Function and its Cellular Basis, which is a multisystem Physiology and Histology course which also revisits Cellular and Molecular Biology. This allows students to gain a better understanding of...
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