FAQs About PURCH

UMass Chan Medical School uses a rolling admissions process. Per AMCAS traffic rules, acceptances begin to be offered on or after October 15 and continue until the class is full. For PURCH that means 25-30 students plus a wait list.

The timeline is long at UMass Chan—the admission team is balancing PURCH, Lead at Lahey, in-state/out-of-state, and MD/PhD applications throughout the process. Over half of the offers are made in March and April, and continue through May and June.

Yes! If our UMass Chan-Baystate Admissions Committee determines an applicant is an excellent medical school candidate but is not a good fit for PURCH—or an applicant opts out of the PURCH admissions process—the applicant is assigned to a UMass Chan Admissions team for review. Their application is not affected negatively as a consequence.

PURCH students follow the same UMass Chan Medical School VISTA curriculum as students on the main Worcester campus. So, while the courses and learning objectives are the same, PURCH augments the core curriculum by focusing on individuals who have traditionally been disenfranchised from the healthcare system—and developing students' skills to deliver more equitable healthcare.

Students learn through:

• Innovative experiential education practices
• An additional focus on health equity and social determinants of health within the Springfield community and rural areas of western Massachusetts
• The Five PURCH Principles which guide how we learn, lead, and teach students to become physicians who are: 1) excellent diagnosticians, 2) team-oriented, 3) self-reflective, 4) empathetic, and 5) leaders who can be led.

Students are challenged to think about personal bias, social injustices, and healthcare disparities. These experiences build on each other over the four years of medical school and can provide a platform for students to begin exploring health equity solutions in collaboration with interprofessional healthcare workers and members of the community.

In addition to physician faculty, PURCH 's unique Baystate Community Faculty are involved in many aspects of educating PURCH students.

The Baystate Community Faculty are non-physician volunteers who live, work, and play in the urban and rural communities Baystate serves who are interested in promoting advocacy in our current and future healthcare providers.

They contribute to the PURCH curriculum, interview prospective students, act as Standardized Patients, facilitate Early Clinical Learning small groups, and are a link to community-based learning experiences, and Population and Community Health Clerkship projects.

A typical day at the Baystate campus has been described by PURCH students as “going to a conference where you get to focus on things that are interesting to you.”

• On the morning of PURCH days (Wednesday), students are expected to be in Springfield by 9 am ready to learn. There are morning educational sessions 9-12 pm and afternoon 1-5 pm.

Example Days:

The Baystate Health catchment area consists of both inner city urban and rural hill town environments and operates hospitals, clinics, and physician practices that serve both populations.

In addition, PURCH has developed partnerships with organizations and advocates in both rural and urban areas, and offers learning opportunities in both of those environments.

For example, the Longitudinal Preceptor Program and the Population and Community Health Clerkship both have placements with physicians in either an urban or rural area. During clinical years, PURCH also offers electives to further explore rural and urban health. PURCH students develop an understanding of shared—and unique—rural and urban health needs directly from community members and health care providers themselves.

PURCH students have the same Exploration Phase core clinical clerkships as Worcester based students—Family Medicine, Pediatrics, OB/GYN, Psychiatry, Neurology, Internal Medicine, Surgery, and Radiology. They are delivered in a similar structural model and have the same learning objectives and the identical grading system.

The difference is that PURCH students do all of their core clinical clerkships at Baystate Health in Springfield and its affiliated teaching sites in Northampton and Greenfield, Massachusetts. In contrast, their peers at the main Worcester campus may have some of their core clinical clerkships in Worcester while others may be at affiliated hospitals all across the state.

All exploration phase students also have four, one-week Flexible Professional Experiences (FPE) to explore their areas of interest. PURCH offers a number of population health-focused FPEs in rural and urban communities.

PURCH Student participating in the Department of Medicine’s Clinical Problem Solver's Grand Rounds.

Every year PURCH medical students, a team of internal medicine residents, and an attending discussant present at the Clinical Problem Solver’s Grand Rounds. Each group presents their thoughts on a diagnostic case, emphasizing clinical reasoning. (Photo: Erbrahim Barkoudah, MD, MPH, MBA, Christine Donat, MD, Pranav Ramamurthy, MD, Sherin Samuel, DO, Ellie Parker, PURCH Class 2026, Madison Mixer PURCH Class 2026, Lindon Tran, PURCH Class 2026)

Yes. For the fourth year Horizons Phase, PURCH students do their required Acting Internships, their Clinical Problem Solver rotation, and Intersessions at Baystate. All other Horizon Phase electives can be done outside of Baystate Health.

No, PURCH courses receive the same credit as the comparable courses in the core MD track at the main campus. However, your additional experiences are highlighted in your MSPE (Dean's Letter) that accompanies your application to residencies.

PURCH is a track of UMass Chan's MD program—it does not include an MPH degree.

In the 18-month Discovery Phase, PURCH students live alongside their non-PURCH colleagues in Worcester and take all the same classes at that campus EXCEPT Early Clinical Learning courses (including patient interviewing, physical diagnosis, and hospital sessions) and their Longitudinal Preceptor Program which take place in Springfield at the Baystate campus on most Wednesdays.

This means that PURCH students will be in Springfield an average of 3 days per month during the Discovery Phase.

PURCH students must have a vehicle to travel between the main campus in Worcester and the Baystate campus in Springfield, approximately 50 miles away.

No. PURCH days fall on Wednesdays which is protected time for all students to concentrate on Early Clinical Learning courses.

Since PURCH students spend most of their time in the Springfield area while doing their Exploration Phase clerkships in Year 3 and Horizons Phase rotations in Year 4, the majority of students find local housing. The Baystate campus, like the main campus, does not provide housing for PURCH medical students, but there are several options for renting and leasing in western Massachusetts.

PURCH students have the same relationship to the main campus as their peers in the core track. They return to the main campus for mandatory testing as well as any Worcester-based electives they may have chosen.

Yes! PURCH faculty strongly encourage students to join any additional educational opportunities in which they take an interest.

If you are applying to the PURCH program, our Pathway works closely with the Baystate Franklin AHEC (under the umbrella of the MassAHEC Network at UMass Chan in Worcester) to deliver the MassAHEC Scholars Optional Enrichment Elective during the first and second years of medical school. You may learn more about this opportunity to develop hands-on clinical skills, explore health care delivery through site visits and engage in conversations with providers who work in various settings here.

Generally, this is difficult to do once you have started medical school. Students may request to opt in to or out of PURCH throughout their first year with the approval of their learning community mentor and leadership at both campuses. However, this must be approved by a committee and is based in part upon space at the other campus. See PURCH Policies on the UMass Chan website.

Students often remark on the value of being in the PURCH Community of Practice—students, academic faculty, Baystate Community Faculty, and community members with a shared goal of equitable healthcare to communities facing systemic health disparities.

With respect to medicine, PURCH students gain a deeper understanding of the impact of social determinants of health in patients’ lives. Students explore the impact that community and environment play on the physician and on the patient.

PURCH students also gain expertise in interviewing, examining, and building trusting therapeutic relationships with populations typically marginalized by the healthcare system.

This additional sophistication in learning to deliver care to patients significantly impacted by social determinants of health is a valuable tool for any physician—whether they are a primary care provider, a specialist, or a researcher.

With respect to themselves as learners, PURCH students gain self-awareness, and through relationships with fellow PURCH students, community members, and Baystate faculty, develop their identities as individuals, learners, and physicians.

PURCH aims to train students to become doctors who are:

• Team-oriented
• Excellent diagnosticians
• Self-reflective
• Empathetic
• Leaders who can also be led

By emphasizing self-reflection, empathy, and working as a team, students are encouraged to navigate different experiences with openness and to listen to and learn from patients and members of the medical community.

As excellent diagnosticians, PURCH students are challenged to think critically about current models of care.

As leaders who can be led, students are challenged to embrace innovative opportunities and partnerships for improving patient and physician experiences and to advocate for their patients.