Western welcomes largest class yet of medical students

London - The Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at The University of Western Ontario will welcome its largest class to date of first year medical students with a White Coat Ceremony on Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 in Room 145 of the Natural Sciences Building from 10:00 till noon. The Class of 2013 has 159 students, 12 more than last year’s incoming class. Students and their families will begin arriving at 9:00 a.m. to register.

In May, the Ontario government announced an additional 24 medical school spaces for Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, with half of the additional students starting this fall, and the other half in 2010.

“In just one decade, we have grown from having 96 first year medical students to now having 159, training on two campuses,” says Dean Carol Herbert. “Our growth has been incredible, but we remain as committed as ever to providing the best training possible for each one of these future doctors.”

Thirty students in the Class of 2013 will be trained in the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry-Windsor Program, located at the University of Windsor. It was launched last year with a class of 24 students who are now in second year.

During the White Coat Ceremony, medical students will be presented with a laboratory coat. In donning it, they symbolically agree to the professional, social and ethical responsibilities of becoming a physician. They’ll also be asked to recite the Hippocratic Oath.