It wasn’t a fashion show, but more than 120 incoming students donned new attire Aug. 13 during the Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine’s annual White Coat Ceremony. The ceremony welcomes incoming medical students, and the white coat is symbolic of their transition into the study of medicine and their role as care givers.
The class of 2008 includes 61 women and 62 men, ranging in age from 18 to 29. Each first-year student was presented with a new white coat just before the group took the student oath to “acknowledge and embrace all privileges and responsibilities of a physician in training and a member of the medical community.”
Former medical school dean George Dock, M.D., began the White Coat Ceremony in the early 1900s, and he, one of the first full-time professors of medicine in the U.S., would have been impressed with this year’s incoming class.
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“This class has fantastic academic and personal qualifications,” Edwin Dodson, M.D., associate dean for medical admissions, said. “Their personal talents and accomplishments equal their academic credentials. Various members of the class are artists, writers, athletes and seasoned community volunteers.”
Washington University School of Medicine is ranked number one in the nation for student selectivity by U.S. News & World Report, a measure based on the incoming class’s average GPA and MCAT scores. The mean GPA of the new class is 3.86, and the mean total MCAT score is 36.7, equal to or slightly above the extremely high qualifications of incoming medical students for the last several years.
The Admissions Committee interviewed 1,168 candidates from a total of 3,921 applicants before selecting the 123 members of this class.
The class originates from 36 states and seven foreign countries. Students come from 59 different undergraduate colleges and universities. Washington University in St. Louis and Harvard are the top two providers of new students.
Listed below are the students names along with the university or college from which they came.
Elaine Ahillen, University of Kansas
Jacqueline Ahillen, University of Kansas
Christina Ahn, Stanford University
Theodore Armstrong, Montana State University – Bozeman
Caroline Arthur, Brown University
Molly Arvin, Washington University in St. Louis
Jason Baron, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Lisa Bauman, Washington University in St. Louis
Neil Bhamb, Northwestern University
Kathryn Bitter, Baylor University
Seth Bloom, Washington University in St. Louis
Jason Brant, Washington University in St. Louis
Justin Brooks, University of Maryland – Baltimore
Kristin Brown, Northwestern University
Rebecca Chancey, University of Georgia
Roger Cole, Rice University
Nathan Cox, Georgetown University
Rishikesh Dalal, Harvard University
Shadmehr Demehri, Washington State University
Manuel Doblado, Washington University in St. Louis
Maia Dorsett, University of Chicago
Jessica Duan, Yale University
Charlene Ellsworth, Tufts University
Rachel Engen, Northwestern University
Jeremy Etzkorn, University of Illinois
Sarah Finger, Washington University in St. Louis
Elizabeth Fowler, Washington University in St. Louis
Noopur Gangopadhyay, University of Virginia
Michael Geske, University of Michigan
Zahra Ghiassi Nejad, New York University
Nsangou Ghogomu, Univerisity of Illinois
Leah Givens, University of Georgia
Patricia Goldhoff, Harvard University
Elizabeth Goodman, Pomona College
Anjali Gopalan, Rice University
Daniel Graesser, University of Illinois
Cheryl Gray, Harvard University
Jennifer Griffith, Indiana University
Brent Griffith, University of Notre Dame
Scott Hadland, McGill University
James Harper, Rice University
Beth Helmink, Illinois State University
Ramin Herati, University of Missouri – Rolla
Mai-Lan Ho, Stanford University
Stacy Hood, Washington University in St. Louis
David Hormozdi, University of Florida
Benjamin Jacobs, Utah State University
Scott Kaiser, Georgetown University
Julia Kauffman, University of California – San Diego
Alistair Kent, Harding University
Andrew King, Northwestern University
Michael Klein, University of Notre Dame
Sarah Kovnar, Washington University in St. Louis
Marie Kozel, Emory University
Michael Kwiatt, University of Notre Dame
Aaron Lee, Harvard University
Eugene Lee, Stanford University
Andrew Leitner, Tufts University
David Lortscher, University of California – Santa Barbara
Ryan Luginbuhl, Cornell University Endowed Colleges
Matthew MacEwan, Case Western Reserve University
Andrew Maclennan, Tufts University
Robert Mallery, Rice University
Erin Martens, Northwestern University
Stephen McCartney, Johns Hopkins University
Kathleen McKeon, Yale University
Adam Meadows, Andrews University
Ifeanyichuk Megwalu, University of Toronto
Katherine Mercer, Indiana University
Samuel Merrill, University of Arizona
Michelle Moniz, Johns Hopkins University
Michael Montana, University of Virginia
Valliammai Muthappan, Northwestern University
Kari Nelson, University of Wisconsin – Madison
Robert Nickel, University of Virginia
Eric Nordsieck, University of Illinois
Kwadwo Oduro, Harvard University
Oluwafunmil Okuyemi, Rutgers University
Jeremy Orr, University of Southern California
Jesse Otero, Stanford University
Kaushal Patel, Case Western Reserve University
Avani Patel, Duke University
Sean Peden, Brown University
Vinaya Puppala, University of lllinois
Amanda Raya, Pomona College
Anjani Reddy, Swarthmore College
Jennifer Reeve, University of Michigan
Andrew Reinink, Michigan State University
Charles Rickert, New York University
Clare Ridley, Columbia University
Ilana Rosman, Brown University
Shada Rouhani, McGill University
Adam Rouse, Washington University in St. Louis
Anthony Rowe, University of Pittsburgh
Wesley Russell, Georgetown University
Michael Sacerdote, Harvard University
Sandra Schurman, Vanderbilt University
Sunitha Sequeira, Washington University in St. Louis
Efrat Shavit, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Annemarie Sheets, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Tammy Shen, Duke University
Yeamie Sheref, University of Pennsylvania
Arsham Sheybani, Louisiana State University
Devon Snow, Tufts University
Steven Sperry, University of Virginia
Russell Strom, Harvard University
Christopher Sumey, St. Olaf College
Melanie Sutter, Baylor University
Jennifer Thompson, Bradley University
James Tschudy, Brigham Young University
Diwakar Turaga, University of Massachusetts
Kristin VanderPloeg, Colgate University
Sunitha Vemula, Johns Hopkins University
Alecia Vogel, St. Louis University
Tracey Wagner, University of Wisconsin – Madison
Julie Walcutt, Washington University in St. Louis
Monica Walker, Northwestern University
Karolyn Wanat, Florida Institute of Technology
Brian White, Harvard University
Robert Wong, Yale University
Ambrose Wong, University of British Columbia
Anna Woodbury, Rice University
Daniel Zurcher, Brigham Young University