University of Florida College of Medicine

The UF College of Medicine strives to improve health care in Florida, our nation, and the world through excellence, superior leadership in education, clinical care, discovery, and service. We advance our mission through a curriculum and learning environment focused on training our students above all to care deeply and well for their patients and for each other. Six core competencies guide the training, assessment and feedback students can expect: medical knowledge, patient care, systems-based practice, professionalism, communication and practice-based guided learning and improvement. Our curriculum organizes the acquisition of medical knowledge and skills using a systems-based approach that integrates basic sciences, clinical sciences, health systems, social sciences, and wellbeing. Faculty nurture students’ professional identity through structured encounters with standardized patients, longitudinal mentorship both individually and in teams and immersion in real world scenarios. We intend for all of our students to become well- rounded leaders in patient advocacy. UF Health’s wide service area promotes health systems-informed practice and an interdisciplinary, team-based culture. Students have easy access to mentors and teachers in over 100 primary care, advanced specialty and subspecialty services. In addition, our students learn from and practice with social services professionals, attending faculty, trainees and patients, among other team members, to coordinate care, problem-solve and improve patient outcomes. The full campus in Gainesville includes Shands Hospital, a quaternary care facility which serves as UF’s main teaching hospital and five co-located affiliate hospitals including a Veterans Affairs hospital and children’s hospital, six health professions colleges and ten research centers/institutes. UF Health Jacksonville, now a regional campus for clerkship years, offers a downtown training hospital and multiple inpatient and outpatient practices serving patients throughout North Florida and South Georgia. We also encourage our students to participate in research and discovery across our academic and clinical enterprises. Eleven scholarly tracks offer short and long term research opportunities. A program based on care will not succeed without an environment that also cares for students. Robust student services include a full-time counselor, full-time learning specialist, structured peer-to-peer mentoring program, wellness curriculum and multiple mechanisms for students to contribute to ongoing program improvement. Our mission informs an admissions practice that seeks those who are not only academically accomplished but medically informed and who exhibit throughout the application a genuine drive to learn, work and serve in intra- and interdisciplinary teams. Successful candidates demonstrate a desire to grow and be challenged personally, academically and professionally. In evaluating the application and interview, we credit the myriad ways that individuals acquire and demonstrate the character, preparation, resilience and skills that contribute to transforming good medical students into excellent physicians. We evaluate the competencies we seek in part by asking applicants to reflect on how their personal values intersect with medicine and to attempt to think like a physician by responding to the narrative of a real patient encounter. As our curriculum emphasizes exceptional patient care within a setting that prioritizes community and student support, the personal attributes that applicants demonstrate are key as we consider who will thrive in and enhance our community. We evaluate these in the written application by way of the quality and consistency of essays, experiences, and letters of recommendation. During the interview phase we conduct one-on-one conversational interviews and incorporate our students and faculty throughout our interview day to introduce future students to our community.