Medical schools incorporate various crosscutting disciplines from collective health (social and human sciences, epidemiology, planning, and management and evaluation of health services and programs). This article aims to evaluate undergraduate medical training in relation to course subjects in collective (or public) health, describe the integration of the related activities, and analyze the importance of these disciplines from the students' perspective. This was a descriptive study with a quantitative approach at the State University of Ceará, Brazil, in health units operating in collaboration with the school of medicine. The sample consisted of 129 undergraduate medical students. A questionnaire was used, mainly with closed questions. Data analysis was performed with SPSS 16.0 for Windows, both descriptively and parametrically, involving means and standard deviations. The majority of the students (67.1%) highlighted the relevance of disciplines in collective health during their course of study, classifying them as important or very important. The study concluded that the students consider the inclusion of such disciplines essential. Thus, collective or public health is perceived as a fundamental tool in the undergraduate knowledge-building process.