New class welcomed to med school
David Janka, Steven Minear, Thomas Tsai, Melanie Majure and Monika Chock at the stethoscope ceremony.
Perhaps the most telling generalization that can be made about the new class of medical students is that the class defies generalizations.
Among the 86 students are a PhD astrophysicist who searched for signs of intelligent life in the universe with the SETI Institute, the founder of an international nonprofit that combats preventable blindness in 25 countries and a former housekeeper who managed to work her way out of poverty and then achieve a master's degree in biotechnology.
"Everyone you meet here is really different," said Sara Stern-Nezer, who had been traveling across Southeast Asia only a few weeks before the first day of courses.
The medical school welcomed them all with several days of orientation activities—a backpacking trip in the Sierra, a big dinner that students prepared with the help of their advisors and a race that required teams of the doctors-to-be to find a series of campus landmarks. The orientation culminated with the annual ceremony at the Faculty Club, where the medical school alumni association, with support from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation, presented each student with a stethoscope, to the applause of family, friends and faculty.
"You represent the best of the best," said Dean Philip Pizzo. "Congratulations for being here and thank you for being here."
The 86 incoming students were selected from an applicant pool of 5,638, of which 362 were interviewed (including 314 candidates for the MD program and 48 for the MD/PhD program). Of this group 162 students were offered admission, for a yield of 52 percent. Included in the incoming class are seven students who had deferred enrollment from 2004.
Nearly half of the class members—47 percent—are women, 28 percent are "New Americans" and 22 percent are from minority groups that are under-represented in the medical profession. The birthplaces of the incoming students include 20 countries and 24 different states.
The students come from 43 different colleges and universities. Of these, the schools with the highest number of represented students include Stanford (14), Harvard (12), Yale (7), Columbia (3) and two each from MIT, Cornell, UC-Berkeley, UC-Irvine, UCLA, the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania. Eight of the incoming students already have PhDs, and another six hold master's degrees.
"Our faculty will work to help shape you, but you also have to shape each other," said Pizzo, whose remarks, while celebratory, also struck a serious note. He talked about how public trust in physicians is eroding and urged the students to work to reverse that trend. In terms of the future, he told them, "You are our very best hope."
