Top 10 Reasons to Attend UNM School of Medicine

Why should you consider medical school at UNM? Here are the top 10 reasons to attend the School of Medicine.

The commitment of our more than 700 faculty members to medical education.

Our relatively small class size and the large size of our faculty results in a low student-to-faculty ratio throughout the entire four years of medical school. This results in greater attention by faculty and residents to students in both the basic and clinical sciences and provides students with more quality clinical experience.

Education is highly valued by the School of Medicine administration and figures prominently in all tenure and promotion decisions. All tutorials are staffed by permanent faculty members, many of whom are internationally recognized for their work in curriculum development, student progress and programmatic assessment, clinical and patient education and rural health education.

The School of Medicine invests heavily in medical education research: more than 70 of its faculty members have gone through extensive one-year curriculum leadership training as part of the Medical Education Scholars program. The faculty is dedicated to integrating research, patient care, community service and education into a seamless endeavor.

Our internationally renowned clinical and research programs.

Five School of Medicine departments are consistently ranked in the top 40 National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant-funded departments in the nation. The UNM Cancer Center has received elite National Cancer Institute comprehensive designation. Its faculty members are internationally recognized for their pioneering programs in cancer diagnostics, treatment and prevention. Other UNM research programs with international prominence include novel functional imaging methods for the study of the brain and mental disorders, new techniques in drug discovery, the effects of alcohol on the nervous system, the pathology of hypertension, the function of the immune system and the biology investigation and vaccine development for human immunodeficiency virus, human papilloma virus and hepatitis C. The NIH-funded Clinical and Translational Science Center provides infrastructure for groundbreaking research into the application of basic research to clinical practice.

Our research programs are supported by grants from the NIH, the National Space Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Keck Foundation and many other private foundations.

A diverse set of learning modalities are used throughout our curriculum.

Along with lectures, laboratory sessions and clinical rotations, we have an internationally acclaimed student-centered, problem-based learning (PBL) tutorial program that uses medical cases to integrate biological, behavioral and population perspectives into our curriculum. UNM was one of the first medical schools to use PBL starting in the 1980's. Our approaches and infrastructure have been emulated around the world. Medical school faculty and administrators have come from around the world to visit our curriculum leaders and study our PBL system.

Our renowned student research experience.

The School of Medicine is one of only a handful of medical school programs in the country that requires a research experience to graduate and provides medical students an opportunity to conduct a project in a laboratory, clinical or public health setting with a faculty mentor or in the community. Students present their projects at national meetings and many publish their findings in scientific and medical journals. The research experience gives our students a significant advantage in applying to many of the highest quality residency programs in the nation.

Our beautiful campus setting, located below the Sandia Mountains, features many newly constructed facilities.

The UNM Health Sciences Center’s newest facilities include a new ambulatory surgery center, a new women’s and children’s hospital, a new cancer center and a new education facility. The second and third phases of our Domenici Center for Health Sciences Education presently under construction will feature spacious state-of-the-art anatomy and patient simulation laboratories.

The cultural, ethnic, experiential and geographic diversity of our students.

Our students bring a rich background of life and learning experiences to our School of Medicine. Our students come from all parts of New Mexico and many have had other careers before they enter medical school. They participate in many student organizations and interest groups. This diversity provides our students with the benefit of the wisdom of experience.

Learning experiences in rural areas of New Mexico, in other states and in other countries.

UNM students travel all around the state, nation and the world to learn about health care issues and carry out research. In addition to research opportunities, the Department of Pathology has a one-year pre-internship program where students can gain experience in clinical pathology, which will enhance their graduate medical education opportunities in pathology after medical school.

Early exposure to clinical medicine.

While students at many other U.S. medical schools have little or no clinical experience in their first two years, our students have direct patient contact from the outset that includes a Clinical Skills Course, Continuity Clinics, an eight-week summer Practical Immersion Experience in rural and urban communities across New Mexico, and participation in Albuquerque student-run clinics, including the Immigrant Clinic and Clinic for the Homeless.

The reasonable cost of a medical education.

Our School of Medicine’s tuition and fees are among the lowest in the nation. We are committed to keeping tuition and fees in a range that permits students to leave medical school with manageable debt and provides our graduates with the greatest flexibility to pursue a wide spectrum of careers in medicine.

For more information regarding tuition, please feel free to contact the School of Medicine Financial Aid Officers, Eddie Salazar, EDSalazar1@salud.unm.edu or Leslie Gast, LGast@salud.unm.edu.

Our integrated curriculum emphasizes a combination of biological, behavioral and population perspectives.

The School of Medicine’s view is that medicine goes from “bench to bedside to community.” Our curriculum contains a variety of experiences in research, public health and community medicine, including dual degree programs. Students will soon be able to apply credit earned in medical school towards a Master’s in Public Health at UNM. There is also an MD/PhD program where students obtain graduate course credit for medical school courses and are able to carry out bench, clinical, Epidemiology and public health research in any of dozens of research programs around the Health Sciences Center.