In his annual State of the Medical College Address on June 24, Dean Antonio M. Gotto Jr. briefed a standing-room-only crowd in Uris Auditorium on how Weill Cornell has fared in the past year and where the institution is poised to go in the future.
The students at Weill Cornell Medical College, "always a tremendous source of pride for the institution," the dean said, continue to be among the brightest scientific minds in the country. The class of 2012 — 89 students matriculated out of almost 6,000 applicants — brings with it the highest GPA and MCAT scores of any class in the Medical College's history. Both figures are high above the national averages.
In 2009 Weill Cornell celebrated its second graduating class from Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar.
The residency statistics from this year's class prove that getting in to Weill Cornell is hardly the finish line for these young doctors-to-be. All 88 students in the class of 2009 who pursued a postgraduate training program obtained one, and almost all of them matched to a U.S.News & World Report–ranked top-50 clinical institution.
That tradition of unmitigated success has translated nicely at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, where 14 of the 17 members of the 2009 graduating class — the second graduating class in the school's history — matched to residency programs in the United States.
While Weill Cornell graduates do go on to some of the most prestigious postgraduate programs, they unfortunately do so with a significant amount of student loan debt. Though their debt is far less than the national average, Dean Gotto stressed that the figure must be reduced.
"Our alumni have been contributing about $3.5 million per year for scholarships, which is very gracious and significant," Dean Gotto said. "These scholarships are the only way we can hope to keep student indebtedness down."
At the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences the average GRE scores and GPAs of our entering students has kept pace with or surpassed other schools in the area. Weill Cornell continues to attract the best students due in part to the Graduate School programs boastings rankings among the nation's best. This year, the Chronicle of Higher Education ranked our Biochemistry and Structural Biology Program as the best in the country. Another six of our programs were also ranked in the top 10.
"The growth of the Graduate School under Dean David Hajjar's leadership has continued at an impressive rate," Dr. Gotto said.
The graduate and medical students are able to experience such academic success not only because of their own acumen and dedication, but also because they are learning under one of the finest groups of faculty every assembled, Dr. Gotto noted.
Dean Gotto mentioned just a few of the faculty members who have received recent honors or awards. This year, Dr. Francis Lee (Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists), Dr. Ari Melnick (Clinical Scientist Award in Translational Research from the Burroughs Wellcome Foundation) and Dr. David Lyden (Hartwell Individual Biomedical Research Award) were recognized for accomplishments in their individual fields of study.
"We are indebted to our faculty, our staff, our overseers and our students for all the remarkable contributions they have made this year," Dean Gotto said.
Architectural rendering of the Medical Research Building on 69th Street. Construction will continue with projected completion by 2013.
However, this academic year was also marked by an economic downturn so vast that nobody was left unscathed, Weill Cornell Medical College included. The financial constraints led to a number of reductions in various departments, but the academic mission of Weill Cornell has in no way been compromised. The Physician's Organization, a critical source of revenue for the Medical College, was able to grow its income by 10 percent in 2008, and has a projected growth of 9 percent for 2009.
Such growth in this time of cutbacks and reductions illustrates the structural integrity of the Medical College.
It is also why construction of the Medical Research Building on 69th Street has been able to continue apace. This fall, the excavation and foundation pouring will begin with an eye toward substantial completion in summer 2013.
"This building will be a continuation of Weill Cornell's commitment to the very best," Dr. Gotto said. "This is why thousands of young people apply here. This is why physicians from all around the world join our faculty. This is why we are Weill Cornell."