More information about Cleveland Clinic

The Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine (CCLCM) (also known as the College Program) is part of the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (also known as the University program). The Cleveland Clinic program is a unique five-year program with the goal of training physician investigators. The mission of the college is "to educate a limited number of highly qualified persons who seek to become physician investigators and scientists committed to the advanced of biomedical research and clinical practice." The Cleveland Clinic program offers:

• Free tuition for all five years with an option of getting a Masters degree for free within those 5 years (MPH, MBA, Masters in Bioethics, Masters in Applied Anatomy, Masters in Biomedical Engineering, or Masters in Biomedical Sciences, etc). Many students are able to secure funding to receive a stipend for living expenses for the research year in the 5th year. Upon graduation, students graduate with a "MD with Special Qualification in Biomedical Research" or a MD/MS joint degree--all degrees are issued by Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. Other free perks for Cleveland Clinic medical students include a free laptop, free parking, etc.
  
• Relatively low stress, non-competitive environment: No comprehensive exams, no grades, Thursdays are off for the first 2 years. Classes are M-W and Friday mostly from 8 am-noon, the rest of the day students can do research, get clinical exposure and/or study.
• Innovative and unique medical curriculum that is student-centered and case-based. The program provides a "graduate education in medicine" with a heavy focus on PBL classes and small group case-based seminars as opposed to traditional lectures. Instead of being issued letter grades, students use feedback from classmates and faculty to determine their strengths and weaknesses that need improvement.
  
• Highly competitive program--only 32 spots (nearly 2,000 people apply and this number is increasing every year). Small class-size offers individual attention with each student being provided a physician advisor and a research mentor for all five years but since the program is associated with a university, students won't be limited by a small class size (there are other medical, dental, law, nursing, public health, business graduate and undergraduate students present on the university campus at Case Western Reserve University). There are 1,500 faculty for 32 students per year.
  
• Associated with the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic, whose guiding principle is "patients first." Out of 4,861 hospitals in the United States, Cleveland Clinic is ranked 4th overall in the nation by US News immediately ahead of Massachusetts General Hospital (Harvard). It has been ranked number 1 in Heart & Heart Surgery since 1995, and out of 16 specialties Cleveland Clinic has 13 specialties (Digestive Disorders, Rheumatology, Urology, Orthopedics, Pediatric Neurology & Neurosurgery, Respiratory Disorders, Diabetes & Endocrine Disorders, Gynecology, Neurology & Neurosurgery, Ear, Nose & Throat, & Geriatric Care) ranking in the top 10 and the rest in top 15. Cleveland Clinic has/will be opening up hospitals in Florida, Toronto & Abu Dhabi. Many famous people come to the Cleveland Clinic for care including Presidents and Prime Ministers from all over the world, kings and monarchs from the Middle East, sports figures like Lebron James, and celebrities like Robin Williams and Oprah Winfrey, just to name a few. Many of the leaders and experts in their respective fields are working at Cleveland Clinic-- students may be trained under notable experts. Cleveland Clinic is one of the largest residency and fellowship training programs in the US so there are great opportunities to make connections and network--getting letters of recommendation when applying to residency from these top physicians in their fields will have a lot of pull.
• Cleveland Clinic is currently under Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, currently a top-20 medical school. Students at Cleveland Clinic get to share the immense resources of both the Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, including other teaching hospitals such as Case University Hospitals (including Rainbow Babies & Children Hospital, MacDonald Women's Hospital, & Ireland Cancer Center), and for the more urban medical cases: MetroHospital, and the Veteran Affairs Medical Center.
• Five-year course of study that requires a research thesis with the last 3 years being customizable to allow students to pursue their own interests in research, clinical specialties, and career goals (i.e. students can do their research year either in 3rd year, 4th year or 5th year). Research is important to get into competitive residencies, such as Dermatology, Radiation Oncology, Neurological Surgery, Plastic Surgery, Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT aka Otolaryngology), etc. at the top residency programs. Research is integrated into the curriculum during the summers in the first two years. The first summer is for basic/translational research and summer in the second year is for clinical research. An entire year is spent doing research (basic or clinical) to write a thesis. This research can be done at Cleveland Clinic (Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute ranks among the top independent research institutes in the nation for NIH funding), Case Western (ranks among the top-tier in NIH funding), at the National Institute of Health (NIH) or through other nationally-recognized research fellowships.
  
• Students are treated like professionals from day 1. Students at Cleveland Clinic are issued long white coats so that there is no differentiation between doctors and medical students (almost all other medical schools, even Case Western, provide medical students with a short white coat to differentiate students from medical doctors).
  
• A basic science curriculum for first 2 years that is organ-system based in the context of clinical cases to help students not only prepare for USMLE but also start thinking like a doctor.
  
• Clinical experience starts early with students being assigned a primary care physician as a longitudinal preceptor for first 2 years. First year students have to go to the clinic once every 2 weeks and in the second year students go to the clinic every week. Students have seen hundreds of cases before they even start their clinical rotations their 3rd year. Students enter residency with outstanding clinical skills.
• Impressive residency match list: http://www.clevelandclinic.org/cclcm/match_2010.html. Graduates from Cleveland Clinic have been accepted to residencies at Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins, Massachusetts General Hospital (Harvard), Beth Israel (Harvard), Emory, Stanford, UPenn, University of Chicago, Baylor, UCSF, Yale, Brown, Wash U, Duke, Michigan, Vanderbilt, UNC, UT-Southwestern, and University of Pittsburgh, etc in some of the most competitive specialties: Dermatology, Radiation Oncology, Neurological Surgery, Otolaryngology, and Vascular Surgery.