How exactly does housing work at American Medical Program?
Students are allowed to live wherever they want, the American Medical Program at Tel Aviv University (AMPTAU) has no housing requirements and there are no AMPTAU Student dorms. The majority of first-year students choose to live in Ramat Aviv near the TAU campus, signing a one-year lease, and then moving downtown into the heart of Tel Aviv for the next two years. Finding an apartment and signing a lease are dealt with during the two-week mandatory orientation period. During orientation, AMPTAU will offer assistance with an organized apartment tour, a lawyer that will go over your contract with you, and will attempt to assist with additional matters, thus enabling the incoming class to start the first day of Medical School smoothly.
Why live in Ramat Aviv during your first year?
During the first year of medical school, everything is pre-clinical and you will be on campus every single day. While the commute from downtown Tel Aviv is not too long (anywhere from 25-45 minutes depending on how far south you live), studies sometimes end late – especially during the two anatomy blocks. It is simply more convenient to live in Ramat Aviv for the first year.
So why not live in Ramat Aviv during the second & third years?
Again, this is an option some students choose, but during the second year you already begin some clinical activities and are not on campus every day, and the third year is a clinical year. Downtown Tel Aviv has a better nightlife scene, and many students want the Tel Aviv city experience.
Second-year students are on campus ~3-4 days a week on average but do not have labs keeping them at school late, but there are mandatory Hebrew classes twice a week in the afternoon. Second years have a few clinical days each month where they go to the hospitals and many become involved in clinical research at the hospitals. Third-year students study mainly at Tel Aviv University-affiliated hospitals.
Where else do students live?
While a majority of students tend to live in central Tel Aviv or Ramat Aviv, Sackler has students in other locations as well. Some examples around the Tel Aviv area include Jaffa, Herzliya, Givatayim, Bnei Brak, and Ramat Gan, which are pretty close to Tel Aviv. Some students have even commuted all the way from Jerusalem in the past though! You can commute from anywhere you like in Israel but you must arrive at every mandatory activity on time.