Long School of Medicine
Medical School
Ready to become a compassionate healer?
Your journey starts here.
The Long School of Medicine Experience
As you prepare to apply to medical school, you’re about to take the first big step in your journey to becoming an excellent doctor. Taking this step can feel exciting and nerve-racking at the same time. We’re here to guide you through not only the first step but also every step along the way — from applying to our medical school, to getting adjusted, through graduation and beyond.
Supportive Culture
When you begin your medical school experience with us, you’ll find that mentorship happens naturally here as you connect with your peers, residents, fellows and faculty. To ensure it remains a priority, we’ve also built it into our program by establishing our Veritas program. Additionally, we offer interest groups for each medical specialty and a wide range of focus areas and missions. The specialty interest groups allow you to explore each medical specialty long before applying to residency programs. Also, the way we’ve structured our curriculum and grading supports collaboration, not competition, which contributes to our nurturing environment.
Vibrant Community
San Antonio is diverse, warm and inviting — and easy on your wallet, too — while offering all the amenities you expect from a major city. When you need a break from studying, you can unwind with the hearty food and live music scenes, downtown nightlife, professional sporting events and outdoor activities. San Antonio is a fun-filled city with so much more than you would expect.
Academic Excellence
We teach the CIRCLE curriculum, which applies basic science concepts to disease and healing, building a strong foundation of medical knowledge right from the start. CIRCLE curriculum — an acronym for Curricular Integration: Researchers, Clinicians, Leaders, Educators — is proven effective, demonstrated by our students’ Step scores and Match rates.
Early Clinical Experience
From the very beginning, you’ll get a head start on learning about clinical care. Instead of being confined to the classroom, you’ll be receiving hands-on experience in the clinical setting, which better prepares you for residency.
Groundbreaking Research
Our institution is well known for its research in diseases that are prevalent in the United States, such as cancer, diabetes, kidney disease, Alzheimer’s and other age-related diseases. We know that publishing research while in medical school is important to you. Our faculty, who publish consistently in top medical journals, will support you in this endeavor. With robust funding from the National Institutes of Health, our discovery-driven culture offers many opportunities for you to get involved in high-power research.
Commitment to Service
We provide you with opportunities to gain valuable experience delivering care to underserved populations in our community through our Student-Faculty Collaborative Practices. These clinics, such as the San Antonio Refugee Clinic, eliminate disparities and barriers to receiving needed care. Challenges to accessing care can result from language and cultural differences and lack of insurance, financial resources and transportation.
516
average MCAT score for 2020 entering class
99.5%
of fourth-year students secured residencies in 2020 Match
28%
of 2020 first-year students are from groups underrepresented in medicine
Our people are not only intelligent, bold thinkers. They are compassionate, supportive — and deeply value diversity. We strive to create a community where everyone feels valued and respected and can thrive. As diverse as our people are, everyone at the Long School of Medicine shares one thing in common: medicine is our calling.
Key faculty and staff
William L. Henrich, MD, MACP
Robert Hromas, MD, FACP
Judianne Kellaway, MD, MEd, FACS
Chiquita Collins, PhD
Whether the Long School of Medicine is near or far from home, our faculty, staff and leadership will make you feel an immediate sense of belonging. Although they are distinguished national leaders, they are accessible and approachable, and their doors are always open to you.
Our faculty are committed to understanding where you want to go in medicine and helping you get there and become the best doctor you can be. They prioritize mentorship and guiding you through your medical school experience, each step of the way.
Their mentorship extends beyond class time and office hours, especially in the second two years of medical school, when you’ll spend most of your time in the clinical setting. From explaining the most complex details of their latest cases to recommending Jamaican food or music venues, they’re here to help you.
Medical students
Our medical students are not only committed to their own success but also to that of their peers. Our culture of collaboration and camaraderie among medical students runs deep.
Our campuses
Our campuses are located in the heart of San Antonio’s South Texas Medical Center and are surrounded by hospitals, clinics, surgical centers, and parks and open spaces. Our modern buildings are constructed to facilitate a modern medical education and offer study spaces for both individuals and groups. Our campuses include key learning centers, as well as nationally leading patient care and research facilities, where medical students receive hands-on experience.
Key learning centers
Key learning centers on our campuses include:
- Academic Learning and Teaching Center, which offers large classrooms, a three-dimensional anatomy learning platform, large presentation and video conferencing capabilities, collaborative study spaces equipped with charging stations and white boards, and a restaurant with a view
- Dolph Briscoe Jr. Library, which includes study pods, meditation rooms and treadmill desks
- H-E-B Clinical Skills Center, a simulation training facility that replicates clinical care scenarios and environments and includes individual exam rooms with video recording capabilities
- Regional Campus Laredo, which serves the fast-growing city of Laredo and the surrounding community.
Patient care and research facilities
Patient care and research facilities include:
- UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson, part of the Mays Cancer Center, a National Cancer Institute-designated patient care and research center that also includes a leading drug discovery program, the Institute for Drug Development
- UT Health Medical Arts & Research Center, a large multispecialty outpatient facility and designated NCQA Patient-Centered Medical Home that includes a same-day surgery center, imaging, physical therapy center, laboratory and pharmacy
- Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases, the region’s first center dedicated to providing a full range of dementia care, as well as research and clinical trials
- Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute, one of two pediatric cancer research institutes in the United States, which has developed more innovative treatments in national trials than any other center in the nation
- Sam & Ann Barshop Institute for Longevity & Aging Studies, a research institute dedicated to understanding the biology of aging and discovering treatments for diseases associated with aging
- South Texas Research Facility, one of the largest laboratory facilities in the state, which houses many different labs and offices, including our Optical Imaging Facility and the Bioanalytics and Single-Cell Core (BASiC) lab, as well as our Office of Technology Commercialization and the Office of the Vice President for Research
To find buildings and other areas, check out our campus maps.
Partner facilities
Our modern clinical sites offer a well-rounded exposure to different care settings and patient populations. They provide a full range of care options and are equipped with advanced technology — giving you a complete, robust clinical experience.
Our partner facilities include University Health System locations and the Audie L. Murphy VA Hospital. University Health System locations include:
- University Hospital, a teaching partner that offers a broad range of specialized care options, as well as a Level I adult trauma center and the only Level I pediatric trauma center in the San Antonio area
- Robert B. Green Campus, an outpatient clinic located in downtown San Antonio that includes various primary and specialty care practices
- Texas Diabetes Institute, one of the largest and most complete diabetes care centers in the United States, which meets our community’s growing demand for care
We offer a personalized medical school experience that is focused on helping you get where you want to go. Some of the beneficial assets we offer include:
- Curriculum, including our preclinical CIRCLE curriculum and clinical curriculum
- Dual Degree and Distinction Programs, including our MD/MPH and MD/PhD dual degree programs and MD with distinction in research, MD with distinction in medical education and MD with distinction in medical humanities
- Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics, which will open your eyes to the moral principles, professionalism and empathy that will prepare you for a career in providing compassionate care
- Veritas program, which offers academic and career advice and personal support from faculty and medical student peer advisors, as well as socials, restaurant outings and friendly competitions
Our Stories
Long Story Short
Our medical school programs are outstanding, but it’s the people who make our institution special. Read their stories.
For me, the Long SOM seemed very integrated into the community. I wanted my medical education to be centered around service to others, especially the most vulnerable in the community. I’ve found a network of friends and colleagues here that are some of the greatest and most inspiring people I’ve ever met. We lift each other up and really root for each others’ successes. That sense of community is important during medical school and also after you graduate.
I was looking for a medical school where I’d be the most comfortable and the most supported in my learning. Not only did LSOM provide that for me by being a Texas school in a city close to home with what was clearly a strong, diverse, and supportive academic community, but I also was impressed by the very hands-on approach LSOM took to the education of future physicians (aided by the direct connection to University Hospital).
The faculty and staff here create a support system for students and want them to succeed. The doctors that teach you are very compassionate people and will help you remember to treat the patient as a human being first rather than a medical diagnosis. The innovations in research, curriculum, service opportunities, and patient care are numerous and help make it a unique institution to be a part of.
The cancer biology research program here is fantastic. We have world-class researchers literally from bench to bedside, from drug design to drug testing, mechanistic studies, and all the way to clinical studies. The program is also very collaborative and has great NIH funding records!
I chose this school because of the reputation of excellent clinical training. When I told various doctors I was interviewing here, the unanimous feedback I received was that the LSOM made fantastic clinicians. I have to say, LSOM has lived up its reputation. I’ve gotten exposure to many fields of medicine, learned how to manage a diverse set of pathology, how to do various procedures, and have had the opportunity to scrub numerous surgical cases.
The Long SOM has created such close ties with our community through our student + faculty run clinics, and our service projects, that I realize there are endless opportunities to join and help our city.
The Long SOM is the most inclusive campus I found. The San Antonio Refugee Health Clinic is a very special asset, which will let me heal my people. I will definitely stay here to raise my family.
The LSOM has always shown an incredible dedication to its matriculants, with particular impressions having been made in the recent months of the COVID-19 Pandemic. My classmates and I have felt incredibly informed and strongly supported as we have temporarily transitioned to new methodologies of medical education.
As an LGBT applicant, I felt immediately reassured that this school was going to be a safe space and also a place that encourages diversity, and this put the Long SOM at the top of my list!
Connect With Us
Have questions about the people, places and programs that make our medical school great?