Today's Students, Tomorrow's Doctors: A Portrait of the DMS Class of 2009

Every year during orientation, Dartmouth Medical School Director of Admissions Andrew Welch delivers an address in which he introduces the new entering class to the faculty and to each other. The following excerpts are from this year's address, given on August 8, 2005:

Your class began as over 4500 applications, forwarded to us by the American Medical College Application Service. We interviewed 666 individuals, or about 15 percent of those who applied. Of those who interviewed, we admitted 259 applicants, or less than 6 percent of the applicant pool. And, of the 259 we admitted, the 82 students with the keenest sense of judgment have become the entering class of 2005.

The class has average undergraduate grade point averages of slightly more than 3.7 in both the sciences and the non-sciences. Over 90% of you had an undergraduate GPA of 3.5 or higher and every sixth member of the class earned a GPA above 3.9. At 31.96 (which I, for one, am willing to round to 32), your average combined MCATs are the highest in the institution's history.

The class represents 56 undergraduate institutions and 29 states. One in six of you is a resident of California. With a half dozen graduates in the class, Dartmouth College is the most heavily represented undergraduate institution, but Bowdoin, Colby, Harvard, Stanford, and UCSD all have three or more.

Half of you are women and more than thirty percent of you are people of color or international students.

Twelve of you were born outside the United States. In addition to being citizens and permanent residents of this country, the class includes two citizens of Canada, plus one each from Bulgaria, Japan, and Vietnam.

Though biology is the most popular major in the class, more than one-quarter of you majored in the social sciences or humanities.

While the youngest of you was being born, the eldest was eligible for a driver's license.

Seven members of the class are EMTs, including one who has been commended seven times for successful field resuscitations of patients in cardiac arrest and for his work at the World Trade Center on September Eleventh.

You are published in The American Journal of Physiology-Cell Physiology, Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery, Diabetes Technology and Therapeutics, Emergency Medical Services Magazine, The Journal of Biological Chemistry, The Journal of Cancer Research, The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, The Journal of Investigative Dermatology, The Journal of Materials Science, The Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology, The Journal of Oceanic Engineering, The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Molecular Cell Biology, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Eight of you already hold graduate degrees. That's one JD, one PhD in Biochemistry, two masters in bioengineering, a masters in civil engineering, plus one masters each in biochemistry and cell biology, regulatory science, and aerospace engineering.

One member of the class is a Fulbright Scholar.

You have participated in health-care and biomedical research in hospitals, laboratories, and clinics at the Argonne National Laboratory, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, the Maine-Dartmouth Family Practice, the Mayo Clinic, Massachusetts General Hospital, the National Institutes of Health, in India, Kenya, Kuwait, Mexico, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Senegal, Uganda, and the Good Neighbor Health Clinic in White River Junction, Vermont.

One of you is Board Certified in polysomnography and the co-author of an educational technology patent in the United Kingdom.

Eleven members of the class captained intercollegiate teams or clubs. One of the captains led a nationally top-ten ranked Ultimate Frisbee team. One of you participated in the US Olympic swimming trials. A classmate is a two time NCAA Academic All-American; two of you are National All-Academic selections. One of you routinely donned a costume with a 20 pound head as Herky the Hawk, the University of Iowa mascot.

One classmate was a translator for the G8 Pre-summit Finance Minister's convention, another attended House Ways and Means Committee meetings as a Congressional Intern, another was an investment banking analyst for Goldman Sachs and another was a Trader on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Three of you completed two-year missions for your church: one each in Brazil, the Philippines, and Jersey City, NJ. One member of the class raised over $9000 to support leukemia research, another spent a summer as the Director of Volunteer Activities at a Haitian orphanage. One of you rang the bell for a Salvation Army collection kettle in front of the K-mart.

This is a particularly artistic class. Two members have performed in Carnegie Hall; one of you performed in Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, another played the organ in the Mormon Tabernacle. One of you was the Director of Business Development for National Public Radio; another was an intern for Bill Nye, the Science Guy. One member of the class won first place in a Virtuoso class piano solo competition hosted by the Vilnius Symphony Orchestra. Another classmate is a competitive ballroom dancer with first-place results in waltz, swing, cha-cha, rumba, and jive, while another was an instructor for Gotta Dance, Incorporated, and a third was president of a Pan-Asian dance troupe. One of you directed an improv comedy troupe, another was wardrobe supervisor for Tim Robbins' Actors Gang Theater, and another was the musical director of an a cappella group.

A member of this class earned a standing ovation during a Broadway performance of "Cats" for successfully performing CPR on a stricken audience member.

And the class has had a range of interesting jobs and experiences. You have been auto mechanics and gas station attendants, bakers and supermarket meat department attendants, ski instructors and ice cream vendors; you have cared for sled dogs at the Arctic Transect 2004 Expedition Base Camp and worked as senior staff level scientists with Boeing Satellite Systems. One of you worked as a janitor, another as a deckhand aboard a tall ship, and another as a law clerk to a federal district court judge. You worked in winebars in Minnetonka and papermills in Millinocket.

Every one of you is here because you have the promise to become a great doctor, to enrich DMS and your classmates while you are here, and to carry on the Medical School's two-century tradition of excellence.

Back to @Dartmouth Medical - Fall 2005