education
2008 Incoming Class
The 2008 incoming class comprises 170 outstanding individuals selected from a pool of 7,412 applicants. Their mean age is 23; 95 are male, 75 are female. This class has higher credentials than any prior class: their mean overall GPA was 3.79 and their mean MCAT score was 35.1.
Diversity
The total Feinberg student body for academic year 2008–09 numbers 695. Of the 94 percent who reported their race/ethnicity, 11 percent are from a group underrepresented in medicine (i.e. African-American, Hispanic-American, Native American). An additional 4 percent are international students, citizens of 27 different countries including Argentina, China, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, and Zimbabwe.
Throughout its long history, Feinberg has been a leader among American medical schools in respect to student racial diversity. The school is working hard to continue to enhance that achievement. A task force has created a variety of successful programs, including enhanced diversity efforts on the school’s web site, development of a web-based tool to encourage underrepresented minority and women faculty applicants, and networking meetings with alums who are members of underrepresented minority groups.
A Redesign of Educational Programs Begins
During the year, the school began the process of redesigning its medical education programs. Like other medical schools, Feinberg has been committed to discussion-oriented and learner-centered methods for the last 15 to 20 years. However, advances in educational concepts and in medical care need to be addressed. A steering committee to begin the process of comprehensive curricular redesign was initiated in Spring 2008. The committee is planning a kick off retreat for early 2009, following which a number of task forces will be created to work on specific aspects of the curricular plan. Students beginning the MD curriculum in Fall of 2011 will be the first to experience the fully redesigned curriculum.
One basic aspect of the curriculum that will change is its uniformity. Currently, the curriculum is nearly identical for each student. The new program will be more consistent with the reality that medical students are adult learners, who come to medical school with a wide variety of life experiences and goals. Learning does not occur in a vacuum, nor is medicine a solitary scholarly discipline; in fact, nearly every field of study within the University has some relationship to the medical sciences or to health care.
Expenses
Medical school debt for graduates in 2008 averaged $152,000. Throughout the year, $4.4 million was given in support of scholarships, and eight new scholarships were established.
National Rankings
The school continues to do well in national rankings. Feinberg was 20th in the U.S. News & World Report 2008 rankings of medical schools; the school’s Physical Therapy program ranked 7th and the Women’s Health program ranked 10th.
A Global Endeavor
An interdisciplinary initiative focused on equipping students with the skills necessary to be lifelong innovators, the two-semester NUvention program culminates in a presentation of new medical product prototypes that enhance, if not solve, the clinical problems of health care providers. Students have the opportunity to explain and demonstrate their inventive ideas to engineering, medical, law, and business school faculty members during the “show and tell” session.
The current generation of medical students understands that medicine is a global endeavor. The Feinberg School of Medicine has several active relationships with global medical service organizations and, during the past year, was delighted to add three international educational programs: Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda; the University of Murcia in Murcia, Spain; and the University of Nice, France. Northwestern has increased students’ opportunities to the point where more than a third of the graduating class in 2007 reported significant international experience during medical school.
A Cross-disciplinary Inquiry-based Approach
NUvention is a model for the cross-disciplinary inquiry-based approach that will be a main feature of the redesigned MD curriculum. This innovative course was created in partnership by the students and faculty from the medical school, Kellogg School of Management, the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Northwestern University School of Law, along with industry leaders. Another excellent example is the Department of Physical Therapy and Human Movement Sciences, which has initiated an academic program that is the first of its kind. The program, which involves partnership with the McCormick School, allows students to earn a PhD degree in engineering plus a doctoral degree in physical therapy.