The UCF College of Medicine welcomes its fifth class of medical students – and its first class at full enrollment – at 10 a.m. on Monday, August 5.
The 120 new students will receive their white lab coats from Dr. Deborah German, UCF vice president for medical affairs and dean of the College of Medicine, during the “White Coat Ceremony,” a traditional event where first-year students are recognized as colleagues dedicated to patient care.
With its first full class, the College of Medicine now has an enrollment of 360 – a nine-fold increase in the five years since its charter class enrolled. By 2016, UCF’s medical school will be educating 480 physicians-in-training a year.
The incoming Class of 2017 was selected from a pool of 3,843 applicants based on their academic excellence and passion for medicine. They averaged an MCAT score of 31 and a grade point average of 3.75 on a 4-point scale. The 64 men and 56 women are graduates of institutions including Duke, Johns Hopkins, Brown, Dartmouth, Georgetown, Brigham Young, Vanderbilt, University of Florida, Florida State and UCF. Eleven of the incoming students have master’s degrees, one has a doctoral degree, and one is a veteran of the nation’s armed forces.
“This fifth class at the UCF College of Medicine is outstanding,” Dr. German said. “They are bright, community-minded young people who are eager to make a positive impact in the lives of their patients and become leaders in healthcare.”