The UCI College of Medicine became part of the University of California in 1965. Prior to this time it was known as the California College of Medicine which traces its roots to a private institution founded in 1896.
The UCI College of Medicine is dedicated to advancing the knowledge and practice of medicine for the benefit of society. This mission is achieved through programs of excellence in:
Education: The College of Medicine is committed to provide educational programs of the highest quality to medical students, M.D./Ph.D. students, residents, fellows, allied health, and graduate academic students. Further, the College of Medicine's educational programs are designed to stimulate self-learning and critical inquiry and to exemplify those human values necessary to fulfill the professional commitments of a career in the health sciences.
Research: Excellence in research is an essential feature of the College of Medicine. Therefore, the College is committed to develop and maintain research programs in the health sciences which seek to advance basic scientific knowledge and the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of human illness.
Clinical Care: Recognizing its responsibility to meet the educational needs of students and the diverse needs of the patient community, the College of Medicine is committed to programs of clinical excellence across the spectrum of patient care disciplines.
Service to the Public: As a publicly assisted institution, the College of Medicine is committed to serve the community as a vital resource of expertise and knowledge. The College further serves the public through the training of health professionals whose backgrounds reflect California's ethnic and cultural diversity and whose professional careers address California's health care needs.
J. Edward Berk/Alumni Medical Education Center: The College of Medicine recently opened a training facility for students and residents. The training center has eight fully functional physical examination rooms equipped with wall-mounted video cameras which feed directly into a main monitoring room. This equipment allows faculty to observe students and residents without being intrusive. The encounters can be recorded and viewed with the faculty member at another time in one of the two faculty development rooms. In addition, the training center also has a skills laboratory in which students learn the proper methods for gowning, giving injections, taking blood pressure, and giving CPR.
The training center also houses "HARVEY," a full-sized Cardiology Patient Simulator specifically designed to demonstrate various cardiovascular disease findings. "HARVEY" can be used in conjunction with the UMedic Multimedia Computer Assisted Instruction system which is a self-learning computerized workstation. UCI is proud to be the first school on the west coast to utilize these multimedia systems in their curriculum.
The medical school facilities comprise a 121-acre site which has been designated the Health Sciences Complex. Twenty-nine acres have been developed to provide space for teaching, research, and patient care as well as offices for departmental administration.
The College's basic science instructional programs are located in modern, well-equipped, medical sciences buildings. These units provide space for first- and second-year classes, lecture halls, offices and laboratories for various basic and clinical departments, and a student center. Other buildings house the College's administration, laboratories, and student center.
In addition, the 40,000-square-foot Plumwood House is devoted to basic research in the fields of neurological disorders, diagnostic systems and reagents, and industrial bioreactors. In this facility, faculty from the Department of Biological Chemistry share laboratory space with corporate researchers.
Comprehensive outpatient services are available on campus through the UCI Medical Plaza and the Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic. Housing one of the world's leading programs in medical laser technology, the Beckman Laser Clinic offers state-of-the-art treatment for cancer of the head, neck, and female reproductive system, cardiovascular disease, and ophthalmologic procedures.
The UCI Medical Plaza capitalizes upon the broad range of diagnostic and therapeutic programs of the College as well as the extensive clinical expertise of the faculty. The facility offers primary care and specialty services including: obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, dermatology, ophthalmology, cardiology, orthopedics, gastroenterology, and neurology. Special programs in diabetes, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, and inflammatory bowel diseases also are available. Also located in the Plaza is the Lon V. Smith Eye Clinic, which offers the latest in diagnostic health care for eye diseases, including computerized refraction analysis, glaucoma diagnosis, and ultrasound analysis of eye disorders.
Medical services offered by the College are provided through the UCI Clinical Services System. This System comprises the UCI Medical Center in Orange, one community clinic in Santa Ana, clinics in Anaheim, and numerous affiliated hospitals and clinics located in Orange, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and Kern Counties. It incorporates the talents and medical expertise of more than 450 full-time clinical faculty of the College as well as approximately 1,800 community physicians who serve as voluntary faculty.
The purposes of the UCI Clinical Services System are to serve the community and to maintain an environment of excellence in medical education and research. At the UCI Medical Center the College offers students and residents a full range of clinical education and research activities, from primary care to the most technical subspecialties. The community clinics offer primary, continuity-of-care medicine, and the College's affiliated hospitals and clinics round out the educational program. Together, these facilities offer opportunities for clinical training in specific specialties and exposure to a wide range of patient populations for more than 600 resident physicians, 194 third- and fourth-year medical students, and numerous allied health and nursing students.
As major providers of medical care, the institutions of the UCI Clinical Services System play a critical role in meeting the health care needs of four Southern California counties. The College has one of the largest training programs for primary care physicians in the United States, and its clinical programs in burns, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, psychiatry, obstetrics, infectious disease, perinatology, and trauma are recognized across the country.
The University of California Irvine Medical Center, located in the City of Orange, is a 462-licensed-bed, comprehensive medical care center. It is the principal clinical facility of the College of Medicine operated by the University. The medical faculty of the College of Medicine, together with the medical resident-physician staff, provide the professional care. Services are provided in medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, psychiatry, family medicine, dermatology, pathology, radiology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, ophthalmology, neurology, anesthesiology, orthopedics, geriatrics, oncology, neurosurgery, otolaryngology, and radiation oncology. The UCI Medical Center also has cardiac, pediatric, neonatal, respiratory, burn, medical-surgical, and neurosciences intensive care units, and more than 90 specialty outpatient clinics. It is the designated countywide Level I tertiary trauma referral center.
A major capital improvement program at the UCI Medical Center is continuing. Recently completed areas include intensive care units for medical, surgical, neurological, and cardiac patients, as well as the Chao Family Clinical Cancer Research Center which is a National Cancer Institute designated cancer center. The Center encompasses all of the basic and clinical subspecialties involved in adult and pediatric oncology, including specialized medical, nursing, and ancillary care necessary to diagnose and manage patients with cancer. In addition, the lobby, pathology laboratories, and general medical floors are being upgraded. A 95-bed Neuropsychiatric Center for treatment and research of mental illness recently opened. The UCI Medical Pavilion, a companion facility to the UCI Medical Plaza on campus houses primary and multispecialty care facilities.
The Community Clinic of Orange County (CCOC) is the only federally supported urban community health center in Orange County. The clinic provides broad primary care services to the community's medically underserved and provides refugee preventive health services to new immigrants entering Orange County. The clinic is the principal ambulatory clinical training site utilized by the Department of Family Medicine for its medical student and resident educational programs. CCOC provides care for approximately 40,000 outpatient visits annually.
The North Orange County Community Clinic (NOCCC) is located in the City of Anaheim and provides training programs for resident physicians in primary care, general internal medicine, and general and adolescent pediatrics. There are additional programs in gynecology, dermatology, general surgery, podiatry, neurology, ophthalmology, optometry, orthopedics, psychiatry, and a multispecialty faculty practice. NOCCC provides training for medical students in their primary care, general pediatric, adolescent medicine, and geriatric medicine rotations and electives. The Clinic provides care for more than 20,000 outpatient visits annually.
Additional major teaching and research programs of the College of Medicine are conducted at the Long Beach Veterans Administration Medical Center and at Memorial Medical Center, Long Beach. Other academic programs are conducted in affiliation with San Bernardino County Medical Center, Fairview Developmental Center (Costa Mesa), Kaiser Foundation Hospital (Anaheim, Bellflower, and Riverside), Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, Metropolitan State Hospital (Norwalk), The City of Hope Medical Center (Duarte), Rancho Los Amigos Hospital (Downey), Western Medical Center (Tustin/Santa Ana), the Kern Medical Center (Bakersfield), Clínica Sierra Vista (Lamont), Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian (Newport Beach), Lanterman Developmental Center (Pomona), Fountain Valley Hospital and Medical Center, Laguna Beach Community Clinic, Children's Hospital of Orange County, Good Samaritan (Los Angeles), and the Orange County Health Care Agency/Public Health Clinic.
Nancy Oelson, Executive Director (714) 824-7155
The UCI College of Medicine is an outgrowth of what began in 1896 as the Pacific College of Osteopathy. The College became part of the UC system when the Irvine campus opened in 1965. The UCI Medical Alumni Association (UCIMAA) represents the nearly 5,000 alumni of the College, and provides many opportunities for student-alumni interaction. Among the programs and services UCIMAA offers for students are: recruiting alumni volunteers to serve as mentors, providing financial support for many student programs throughout the year, and helping students obtain financial and other resources they need for research, educational, networking, and social activities, sponsoring several awards given out each year at Honors Night, and providing short-term emergency loans for students in need. UCIMAA also sponsors continuing medical education programs. These seminars are always open to students at no charge. The College celebrated its one-hundredth anniversary in June 1996.
All inquiries regarding admission programs and procedures of the UCI College of Medicine should be directed to:
Office of Admission
College of Medicine
University of California, Irvine
P.O. Box 4089
Irvine, CA 92697-4089
(714) 824-5388
The UCI College of Medicine is a member of the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS). All students who seek entrance to medical school must first apply to AMCAS. Requests for applications should be submitted directly to:
The American Medical College Application Service
2450 N Street, N.W., Suite 201
Washington, D.C. 20037-1131
Applications may be submitted between June 1 and November 1 of the year preceding anticipated admission. Students who wish to apply to the College of Medicine should designate it on their AMCAS application form, and AMCAS will forward the application to the College.
Last year, the College received approximately 5,000 applications from AMCAS. From these, some 500 candidates were granted interviews, and 92 students were enrolled in the first-year class beginning in September.
Applications received by the College are reviewed by an Admissions Committee composed of basic science and clinical faculty, medical students, and members of the local community. Applications are initially screened on the basis of both the student's academic performance (GPA and MCAT scores) and on non-cognitive variables that reflect depth and breadth of life experience.
After initial screening, selected applicants are requested to submit additional materials which include letters of recommendation, supplemental information forms, two photographs, and a nonrefundable application fee of $40.
In addition to scholastic achievement, attributes deemed desirable in prospective students include leadership ability and participation in extracurricular activities such as research and medically related experience, as well as community service. The Admissions Committee also looks for qualities considered valuable in a physician. These qualities include the intellectual and emotional capacity to provide comprehensive and continuing medical care, the ability to cope with disease and guide patients through a complex array of medical services, a commitment to sensitivity to individual patient needs, and a dedication to the advancement of the art, science, and practice of medicine.
Applicants may expect to receive notification about their admission status from the College any time from November until the beginning of the following fall term. The Admissions Committee maintains a list of alternative candidates for possible acceptance should a vacancy occur before the end of the first week of classes. Accepted applicants must return a written statement of their acceptance of the College's offer within two weeks after receipt of the notice of acceptance. No advance deposit to hold a position in the class is required of applicants. Students who are accepted sign a Statement of Intent to Register, but (in keeping with the recommendations of the Association of American Medical Colleges) are free to withdraw prior to enrollment if their medical school or career choice changes.
Because the University of California is a State-assisted institution, preference is given to California residents who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents of the United States. The College does, however, participate in the student exchange program of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE). Under this program, qualified legal residents of certain Western states without medical schools (Alaska, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming) are considered along with California residents. The states of origin reimburse the State of California for the educational costs of students who are accepted.
To be eligible for this program, students must apply to WICHE certifying officers in their own states. For addresses of certifying officers, contact:
WICHE Student Exchange Program
P.O. Drawer P
Boulder, CO 80301-9752
(303) 541-0214
First-year students may enter only in September of each year. Students can be considered for admission to the College of Medicine if they meet the following requirements:
1. Completion of a minimum of three full years of undergraduate work with a superior scholarship record. This work must total not less than 90 semester units or an equivalent number of quarter units that are acceptable for a bachelor's degree credit in an accredited institution of higher education. Candidates for admission may submit community college credit only to the extent granted on transfer to a four-year college or university. For purposes of evaluation, letter or numerical grades are preferred for course work, particularly for the required subjects listed below. Final enrollment into the first-year class at the College of Medicine is contingent upon evidence of satisfactory completion of all requirements and all courses listed as "in progress" on the AMCAS application (with a C grade or higher). Failure to meet requirements or falsification of information are grounds for rejection or dismissal.
2. Completion of the following college course requirements prior to matriculation:
| Semester | Quarter | |||||
| Units | Units | |||||
| One year of general chemistry | 8 | 12 | ||||
| One year of organic chemistry | 8 | 12 | ||||
| One year of physics | 8 | 12 | ||||
| One and one-half years of biology | 12 | 18 | ||||
| and/or zoology | ||||||
| (NOTE: these courses must include one year of lower-division biology and/or zoology plus a half year of upper-division courses excluding botany.) | ||||||
| One quarter of college level | 2.7 | 4 | ||||
| calculus | ||||||
| One semester/two quarters of | 3 | 8 | ||||
| biochemistry* | ||||||
| *Can be taken in combination with molecular | ||||||
| biology or genetics. | ||||||
Applicants are strongly encouraged to have completed their basic science requirements at the time of application. In addition, premedical students are advised to take advantage of the intellectual maturation afforded by a well-rounded liberal arts education. English, the humanities, and the social and behavioral sciences are considered particularly important. The following courses are also recommended but not required: cell biology, genetics, physical chemistry, vertebrate embryology, and Spanish.
3. Candidates must attain satisfactory scores on the New Medical College Admission Test (MCAT). An officially certified test score must be received by the College's Admissions Office before the candidate's application can be considered. Students applying to the 199798 entering class must have taken the MCAT no earlier than April 1994 and no later than August 1996. Inquiries regarding the MCAT should be addressed to:
MCAT Program Office
P.O. Box 4056
Iowa City, IO 52243
(319) 337-1357
The College's formal advisor system is divided into three groups: basic science advisors, clinical advisors, and career specialty advisors.
Basic Science Advisors
| Robert Steele, Ph.D., Chair | (714) 824-7341 |
There are 12 basic science advisors. Six advisors are assigned on an every other year rotational basis to each incoming class and follow that class through their basic science years. The basic science advisors meet on a monthly basis to review students academic progress, and to initiate interventive programs for students in academic difficulty and at academic risk. They also serve as a source of support and guidance for first- and second-year medical students.
Clinical Advisors
| Deborah Stewart, M.D., Chair | (714) 824-8358 |
| Associate Dean Student and Resident Affairs |
There are 25 clinical advisors. They are divided into two groups on a rotating basis. One group is assigned primarily to first- and third-year students and the other group follows second- and fourth-year students. Each clinical advisor is teamed up with a basic science advisor and follows a cohort of students throughout the four years.
Career Specialty Advisors
| Deborah Stewart, M.D., Chair | (714) 824-8358 |
| Associate Dean Student and Resident Affairs |
Career specialty advisors are generally full-time College of Medicine faculty who are identified as knowledgeable about career and residency options in their field. They are available as consultants to clinical advisors who want to assist advisees in making career choices, as well as directly to the students.
Peer Review and Peer Counseling Program
| Deborah Stewart, M.D., Chair | (714) 824-8358 |
| Associate Dean Student and Resident Affairs |
The College of Medicine has an informal peer review process, aimed at early detection and assistance for medical students who are experiencing difficulty such as professional conduct problems, suspected impairment, violation of the honor code, or violation of any University policy, regulation, or rule. The Peer Review Committee is comprised of two representatives from each class, the student body co-presidents, and two advisory faculty members. The committee operates within guidelines set jointly by the College of Medicine administration and the student body. Cases involving serious professional misconduct are referred to the Dean's Office. The Peer Review Committee conducts hearings and may impose sanctions or provide assistance to the student.
The College is developing a Peer Counseling Program aimed at providing a confidential personal support system. It will allow students to seek assistance from peers in coping with the stress of balancing the demands of professional school and personal life. Peer counselors will receive initial and ongoing training and will serve as a "front-line" system, lending a helping hand and a listening ear to any student in need. However, students with ongoing problems and any major crises will be encouraged to seek professional help via existing campus and College of Medicine resources.
Medical Scholars Program
| Marcia London Albert, Ph.D. | (714) 824-3415 |
| Academic Skills Coordinator |
This program is designed to facilitate a non-competitive and mutually supportive cooperative learning process which has a social, interactive component and a learning, course-based component. The program is offered to both the incoming medical school class and to second-year students. The second-year students are leaders for the first-year students; the fourth-year students mentor and teach the second-year students.
| Alan Goldin, M.D., Ph.D., Chair | (714) 824-5334 |
Exceptionally well-qualified students interested in careers in academic medicine and with demonstrated research accomplishments may be considered for admission to the Medical Scientist Program. Students in this program pursue a combined curriculum leading to an M.D. degree from the College of Medicine and a Ph.D. degree from any of the graduate programs at UCI. A minimum of seven years is required to complete the Program. Students holding either degree are not eligible for the Program. Additional information is available from the Medical Scientist Program Coordinator's Office, (714) 824-5264.
Applicants for this program must submit a supplementary application to the Medical Scientist Program when they are submitting their secondary application information to the College of Medicine. The supplementary forms can be requested from the Office of Admissions, College of Medicine. Students accepted into the program will have the option of pursuing graduate study in any of the graduate programs at UCI. Although a specific graduate department need not be chosen at the time of admission, students will be expected to have selected a field for their graduate studies. Financial support in the form of a fellowship, which includes a stipend as well as tuition and fees, will be provided to a limited number of students each year. Applicants not accepted into the Medical Scientist Program may be considered separately for admission to the College of Medicine.
