Clinical Experience

The Committee on Admissions carefully reviews each type of clinical experience in which every individual applicant to medical school has participated. The Committee believes that every applicant should reflect a vibrant interest in medicine demonstrated by clinical experiences with direct patient contact and knowledge of New Mexico's health care issues. The intent is to provide the applicant with the opportunity to prove to themselves and to the Committee on Admissions that medicine is the profession in which the individual whole-heartedly wishes to study and work. This volunteer or possible work experience may be in a hospital or clinic setting, or perhaps in a nursing home or hospice environment.

It is up to each student to take initiative to locate their clinical experiences through interactions with the various volunteer offices of the local hospitals or through interactions with their professors, friends, family members, etc. There are a plethora of summer clinical experience programs around the country; however, application to these programs begins during the winter months, long before summer arrives.

During the Covid pandemic, most medical centers stopped all extracurricular clinical/shadowing experiences making it difficult for applicants to build their application for medical school admissions. Applicants are evaluated based on their knowledge, the quality of their experiences and how they can articulate those experiences. Additionally, the Committee on Admissions will consider virtual experiences for the semesters affected by the pandemic for future admissions cycles. However, since we have come to the end of the Covid pandemic, applicants are expected to return to in-person clinical/shadowing experiences.