Core Topics in Biomedical Sciences (SOMI 220)

For Entering UCSD Medical Students and SPPS Students

The UCSD SOM Office of Educational Support Services (OESS) offers a seven-week course, Core Topics in Biomedical Sciences, to all students accepted to the UCSD School of Medicine (SOM) and Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (SSPPS). The Core Topics course, which has been offered by the OESS since 1971, focuses on the most challenging basic science areas in the first-year SOM curriculum, The current Core Topics curriculum emphasizes topics in medical physiology and immunology, along with an overview of molecular biology. The Core Topics course also provides ample opportunity to teach students active study strategies that are most effective in integrating and mastering complex subjects in a limited amount of time, and many students form study groups that stay together throughout the first year and beyond.

The Core Topics course is particularly recommended to students who have undergraduate majors outside of the biological sciences or who have been away from full-time study for a year or more. However, all students who have who have been accepted into the UCSD SOM or SSPPS are welcome to attend and can benefit from attending, regardless of background (SSPPS students are encouraged to attend prior to their second year).  The Core Topics course can ease the transition into the intense basic science courses of the first-year SOM curriculum, and data from past summers indicate that the Core Topics course improves student performance in first-year courses.

Students may apply online. Those accepted into the Core Topics course are charged only a small fee to attend.

The course meets every weekday morning (with occasional sessions in the early afternoon). Students will have ample time to orient themselves to the medical school environment and the La Jolla/San Diego community before regular classes begin.