I’m really pleased to have back on the show Dr. Karen Johnson, Associate Dean for Admissions at the Baylor College of Medicine and Dr. Jesus Vallejo, Assistant Dean for Admissions at Baylor College of Medicine. When recently looking at our downloads, I noticed that one of our most popular medical school admissions shows was my interview with Drs Vallejo and Johnson almost exactly two years ago. Fortunately, they agreed to come back. Welcome to Admissions Straight Talk, Dr. Johnson and Dr. Vallejo!

Dr. Johnson, can you give an overview of Baylor College of Medicine’s curriculum? [1:40]

Like all curricula, we’re evolving. As medicine changes and grows, we adapt to that as well. We have curricular committees that look at evidence related to medical education and medicine – right now we’re in the midst of a curriculum reform.

Our curriculum is structured with 18 months of foundational sciences, followed by clinical cores, electives and selectives, and time to do study away or study abroad. We’ve had our 18-month foundational science curriculum for almost 30 years. Over the last decade, more medical schools have adopted that model. It gives students more opportunities to explore their other areas of interest.

Baylor shortened the pre-clerkship portion to 18 months long before it was popular and a trend. What are some other innovations that you anticipate with the current curriculum redesign? [3:45]

Dr. Johnson: We’re revamping the curriculum over the next two years, building on what we have now. We’re looking to incorporate new modes of teaching – such as reversed classroom modalities (with more hands-on activities in class).

We’re developing our medical education leadership. The next generation has to be prepared for the big picture – professionalism, policy, population health. We’re mindful of and trying to be ahead of the curve of issues that the next generation of physicians need to be prepared in.

Dr. Vallejo: It’s very important that even in the preclinical years, students need to start thinking like clinicians. We emphasize clinical reasoning very early in the training.

Dr. Johnson: Physicians need to be teachers, but that’s rarely formally taught. We facilitate teaching opportunities – we want our students to learn that skill. That’s something we really are excited about here.

Your website mentions opportunities for students to customize their education. Can you give examples of what that means? [7:45]

Dr. Vallejo: Students come to Baylor with a lot of ideas of what they want to do. We developed the idea of tracks – for example, for students who are interested in public health, or research, etc, they can enroll in a customized track with a set of experiences around that interest.

Of the graduating class, a third of the class were on some type of track – and a few students did two. Examples included medical ethics, geriatrics, etc. So that’s what we mean by customizing your education – there are a lot of opportunities.

A lot of applicants are interested in global health or business. We do have a joint degree with an MBA, but for students who don’t want to do a full additional degree, the healthcare policy and management track is a good option.

What are other examples of tracks available? [10:00]

Dr. Vallejo: Geriatrics, genetics, global health. There are seven tracks total. We’re the only school of tropical medicine in North America, so that’s a special opportunity within the global health ...