<p>I have heard there were certain programs which allowed students in their forth year of medical school to start their residency that same year, thereby making them graduate medical school a year early.</p>
<p>I just wanted to know if it was possible for a person in medical school to graduate in three years instead of four years?</p>
<p>Where are you headed in such a hurry, OP? Finishing UG AND med school early?</p>
<p>If you earn a degree before attending Duke’s med school, it is possible to skip the ‘research’ year and graduate in three years.</p>
<p>Is there any other way to graduate medical school in three years?</p>
<p>Can someone respond to my question? Is it possible to graduate medical school in 3 years? If so, how can a person do this?</p>
<p>I think Stanford may have this option, not really sure.</p>
<p>Med school is 4 years, not 3. There may be some very limited programs that allow a different schedule (Texas Tech is instituting one for PCP’s I believe). </p>
<p>Now. Answer our question. Why? What’s the rush?</p>
<p>You can’t really be an “advanced” student in medical school the same way you can in college because of the timing of required courses, set rotation number and lengths, etc.</p>
<p>If it makes you feel any better though, many medical schools are considering implementing 3-year MD programs. (Though I stress the difference between “considering” and “actually.”)</p>
<p>Here is a link to an article. [News:</a> The 3-Year M.D. - Inside Higher Ed](<a href=“http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/03/25/threeyear]News:”>http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/03/25/threeyear)</p>
<p>The amount of knowledge and work that is required of a traditional med student is already mind numbing. Today’s med students have far more to learn than those who went to Med school even as little as thirty or forty years ago given all the new diseases and medical/scientific discoveries of the last twenty years. I know that my son has said he couldn’t imagine even trying to cram his current curriculum into any shorter period of time…perhaps those who start rotations earlier gloss over more material or cram it into an even shorter period. That said, to condense it into three years would be more than intense…I can’t imagine what the stress level would be like in that environment.</p>
<p>There are programs that exist in which the 4th year of medical school is in effect substituted for an extra year in residency. Students apply for it during their third year of med school, and if accepted, have their tuition for their 4th year of med school paid for, plus receive a regular stipend (though not quite as much as a ‘regular’ resident would). You don’t get your diploma any sooner, as you still graduate with your original class, but you get in to relevant clinical experience that much sooner with the benefit of reducing your overall cost of attendance by 25%.</p>
<p>At my medical school, the program was available to students going into either Internal Medicine or Family Medicine. As mentioned before applications are done as M3’s, so one of the other benefits is that you save the time, expense and hassle of going through the Match as you are guaranteed a spot in the residency program after the M4 year. Thus the program is ideal for students who knew what they wanted to do, knew they wanted to stay in-state/close to home/not force a spouse to relocate/etc, and were looking for a way to reduce their debt. </p>
<p>The resultant 4th year is designed by the program directors to include a mix of Hospital Wards/outpatient clinic, along with exposure to other specialties that might otherwise take up elective time (like radiology) if one were to enter the “standard” residency program. It’s not quite as intense as a true intern year, but certainly more work than the typical 4th year of medical school. My friends and other residents I knew while a med student who did it, were generally very happy they did, and a lot of them ended up doing some really cool things as upper level residents that wouldn’t have been possible in a standard residency. Major, long duration medical mission trips were pretty common, as were some interesting research projects. HOWEVER IT IS VITAL TO POINT OUT THAT THIS DID NOT SHORTEN THE LENGTH OF TIME THEY SPENT AS A RESIDENT. In other words, they didn’t “gain” an extra year. They still had to complete 3 years of “Graduate Medical Educaton” so really, they were putting 3 years of training into 4. If they were, for example in the MD Class of 2009 (like me), they will finish being residents in 2012, just as I will. </p>
<p>The program was certainly not for everybody. Personally, even if they had a Pediatrics version of this, I wouldn’t have touched it with a 10 foot pole. It’s definitely one of those things that you have to be the exact right type of person, and have the right goals for it to be something to even consider.</p>
<p>As for the viability of completing an MD in three years…I find it extremely, extremely, extremely difficult to shortchange the timeline unless, like the Texas Tech program, there was a residency spot waiting for you at the end. The biggest barrier to an accelerated program is the Match as the system is set up for it to take an entire year (from July when the application service opens to mid-March when results are revealed). That takes up such an overwhelming amount of time during the 4th year of med school, that the only answer is to remove it entirely from the process by getting the student into a residency spot before 4th year even approaches.</p>
<p>As for the rest of the curriculum, you can’t shortchange 3rd year clinical clerkships in any way, shape, or form. I suppose, you could limit the length of the standard clerkships (pediatrics, surgery, Psych, OB/GYN and Internal medicine are the Big 5, while other clerkships like Family med, Neuro, and ER depend on the school and not necessarily required every where). Limit it to those 5, make them six weeks a piece, instead of 8 - though many departments would howl, and many MANY students would be upset about the lack of exposure to subspecialty fields - and you’re down to 30 weeks in the 3rd year.</p>
<p>First year, remove the summer break, and that frees up 3 months, so our total “saved time” compared to standard curriculum would rise to 22 weeks, remove any spring breaks or extra time from around the winter holidays, and that saves you another 3-6 weeks depending on the school…And then you’re stuck…I just don’t think it’s possible to shave another 6 months off the time line without deleterious effects. Standard 2nd year curriculum for all intents and purposes includes the standard syllabus timeline plus the at least 3-4 weeks at the end for preparation for Step 1…it’s just impossible. Medical students tend to be a whiny bunch anyways and it’s not like the first two years of med school are walks in the park. They are certainly some of the most intense years of my life (miserable too, I’m not sure you could pay me any amount of money to relive those two years of my life - I’d happily repeat intern year or the third year of med school, but M1/M2…not going to happen). And I have a feeling that a schedule that would make those years any more harried would result in riots or mass suicides.</p>
<p>Further, any school that did attempt this without some sort of guaranteed residency position already in place would be doing a disservice to patients and the students. I think patient care would definitely suffer and graduates of this school would be unprepared for intern year compared to their peers. As for the students, despite putting them through hell, it would prevent a great many from finding the right field of medicine for them, as well as likely result in lower Step 1 scores, thus decreasing their competitiveness for a great many specialties. </p>
<p>Okay, wow, that was long. I guess that’s what happens when I’m in the middle of flipping to a week of Night shifts…middle of the afternoon, can’t sleep, but definitely sleep deprived after having worked 36 of 57 hours since 6am Saturday (one 24 hour shift, then a 12) in the PICU…</p>
<p><strong><em>EDIT</em></strong>
<p>Yes,my H did this at years ago. It was a continuous program,no summer breaks and they did it in 3 years. They have since discontinued this program.</p>
<p>So does that mean there is absolutely no way to graduate medical school in 3 years? Or is there a way somehow to do this?</p>
<p>Really? What do you want people to say at this point?</p>
<p>Is it possible? Yes. We’ve told you that.</p>
<p>Is it likely? No. We’ve told you that.</p>
<p>Is it limited? Yes. We’ve told you that.</p>
<p>Is it limiting? Yes. We’ve told you that.</p>
<p>Please read our responses. This has all been covered. For the vast majority of medical students this would NOT be a good plan.</p>
<p>Maybe this bladeknight character is a ■■■■■.</p>
<p>I don’t think so, kristin. I think he’s just confused. He’s attending high-school in a foreign country whose rules are very different than ours. I’m cutting him more slack than I’d cut somebody from …let’s say …Missouri. ;)</p>
<p>LOL curmudgeon. ■■■■■ alert went off because I noted some insistence in his questioning that was not relieved by multiple lengthy thoughtful replies.</p>
<p>I am still mildly curious to know the answer to your initial question of, “why 3yr?”</p>
<p>^ Who doesn’t want to settle into a well-paying job ASAP? (My guess.)</p>
<p>I know for the vast majority of medical students, this may not be a good plan. But I really want to do this. I have missed a lot of school due to personal reasons. By the time I go to college I will be 21 years old. That’s pretty old. So I thought that graduating early both in college and University, might help me get through the curiculum faster. </p>
<p>If it is possible to graduate medical school in three years, then I will try to do my best to do that. I just wanted a more comprehensive answer to this medical school 3 years question.</p>