Reality Checks: Michigan Medical School Students Open Up

New documentary reveals the four-year medical school experience as told by the students who lived it.

June 10, 2020 1:19 PM

Video produced by Michigan Medicine.

In 2016, the University of Michigan Medical School welcomed 172 new doctors-in-training. Out of this group, 15 students agreed to be followed throughout their medical training, documenting key milestones in their journeys from their first months on campus until just days before graduation day for most of them. The result is a short film entitled "Four Years in Blue: The University of Michigan Medical School Documentary."

The students came to campus during a significant time in the school's history. The transformed A. Alfred Taubman Health Sciences Library — a space that is home for many students during their time here — reopened less than a year before they arrived, and Michigan Medical School was busy revamping the very curriculum under which they studied for four years.

Last month, most of the students graduated as members of the Class of 2020, and will be entering their residencies during another historic period this summer. The medical school continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic that greatly impacted the students' final months at Michigan, and will change how current students are trained and how future medical students apply and interview for admissions this year.

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