Program Description

The UP Campus is the site for the Rural Physician Program (RPP), a Michigan State University College of Human Medicine rural health certificate program under the Leadership in Rural Medicine Certificate Programs (LRM). The goal of the program is to educate and train exemplary, compassionate medical students who will return and practice in our under-served areas. Our students will learn about the benefits and challenges of rural health care to prepare them for a future serving patients in rural communities.

Our campus is one of three clinical campuses offering a community based, mission-focused curriculum to fulfill the LRM certificate. Clinical training sites are in communities across the UP with the core clerkships primarily at UP Health System – Marquette. Students will also embark upon a four-week rural Family Medicine clerkship in a small UP community. 

Additional required and elective clinical clerkships may be fulfilled in Marquette or possibly at any of the college’s eight community campuses. Electives outside the college system should be scheduled through VSLO with educational institutions who participate in VSLO.

Rural Physician Program Application Process

The option to apply to the Rural Physician Program is on the secondary application where students can indicate interest in applying to the Rural Physician Program (RPP) and/or the Rural Community Health Program (RCHP) at the Traverse City and Midland community campuses. Both programs are part of the Leadership in Rural Medicine certificate program.

To apply for these programs, students will be required to complete two additional essays within the secondary application.  In these essays the applicants discuss their interests in rural medicine and highlight their personal characteristics and experiences that are consistent with becoming an excellent rural physician. RPP applicants should have interests and personality traits consistent with living in a smaller community and practicing in under-served, rural areas. The UP campus selects 10 students each year into the program. Students will know prior to matriculation if they have secured a spot.

The Late Clinical Experience (LCE) in Years 3 and 4
RPP medical students who have passed the USMLE Step 1 exam will relocate to the city of Marquette in the Upper Peninsula to participate in their Late Clinical Experience (years 3 and 4). RPP students also have the option to participate in COMPASS, a wilderness and sports medicine curriculum that teaches students about treating patents sustaining emergent wilderness or sport related injuries in the field.

For more information, please contact the UP campus:
MSU College of Human Medicine Upper Peninsula Education Corporation
850 W. Baraga Ave.| Marquette, MI 49855
Phone: 906.228.7970
Fax: 906.228.5734

Susan Tincknell
Student Programs Administrator for Upper Peninsula Clinical Campus
E-mail: susan.tincknell@lifepointhealth.net

Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, UP Campus
850 W. Baraga Ave.
Marquette, MI 49855

Phone: 906.228.7970