In early interviews and promotional materials, Connelly marketed himself as a 1973 Harvard Medical School graduate, and claimed he was on the faculty of Stanford Medical School between 1979 and 1986. However, Connelly was only at Harvard as a post-grad "special student" in the 1973–74 academic year. He then got his Doctor of Medicine in anesthesia from Boston University School of Medicine in 1978 and did a one-year Stanford fellowship in 1981. Connelly was an unpaid clinical instructor and was never part of the full-time faculty at Stanford.