WHEN PAUL WALLACH, MD, was being recruited to Indiana University School of Medicine, he and Dean Jay Hess assessed the school similarly: it could be spectacular.
Five years later, the nation’s largest school of medicine is making good on that immense potential.
Enrollment has crested, and students across all nine campuses receive outstanding training through the school’s unified curriculum. Streamlining basic science coursework enables those future healers to enter the clinic earlier. Along the way, transition courses focused on communications, ethics, and behavioral health prepare them to excel once they don a white coat.
By their third and fourth year, most of their time is spent in clerkships while also making time for career exploration, residency preparation, or participation in lab research.
At the same time, the school launched 17 scholarly concentrations, drawing on the expertise and character of each campus. Unlike traditional certificates, there’s no added time or cost, and most students can complete a concentration, which includes coursework and a research project, before graduation.
BUT IT’S NOT ENOUGH to aspire for excellence. You need to benchmark and measure it. And doing so shows IU is undoubtedly making strides.
This year, IU students scored above the national average on the exams given at the end of clerkships. Upon graduation, almost 94 percent of them reported being satisfied with their education–a level that places the school among the 75th percentile nationally.
On Match Day 2023, our fourth-year students set a school record with a 99.7 percent match rate. For those departing IU, our newest graduates will fill slots in programs at New York University, Johns Hopkins University, Duke University, Stanford University, Yale University, Washington University in St. Louis, and other excellent programs.
They also hit the ground running. Last year, for example, program directors reported that 98 percent of our graduates met or exceeded the expected competency level for new residents.
Meanwhile, IU continues filling the local pipeline with future healers to care for Hoosiers. Nearly a third will join IU School of Medicine residency programs, and 38.3 percent will enter programs focused on primary care.
DONORS REMAIN ESSENTIAL to making our potential into reality and fulfilling our mission.
This academic year, the School of Medicine awarded more than $9 million in aid to deserving students. Nearly 40 percent of medical students benefited from your generous support.
Every scholarship dollar we award is precious, a vital tool for the School of Medicine to balance priorities as it tries to shape its student body.
About half the dollars allocated each year are put toward four-year scholarships used as recruitment tools. As a result, we can recruit an academically outstanding and diverse class. This year’s entering class boasted a 3.83 average GPA and an average of 512 on the MCAT exam. Like a football coach, the School of Medicine aims to attract the best talent at every position–and your gifts are instrumental in making that possible.
Our remaining pool of funds rewards fourth-year students who have excelled academically at the School of Medicine. Meanwhile, we also try to aid high-performing students facing the highest potential debt load upon graduation.
Concentrating our focus on fourth-year students comes with an added benefit: larger awards. This academic year, the typical scholarship was worth over $15,000 and covered roughly 40 percent of an in-state student’s tuition. This approach ensures that your gift has an impact and is used prudently.
NOW IS ALSO an exciting time to support the School of Medicine and its fundamental mission to train healers.
Within the next two years, our students in Indianapolis will move into its new education building and research tower, located along Senate Avenue. It will sit just south of Goodman Hall and across the street from IU Health’s new hospital. The location will bring many essential services and facilities under one roof.
But above all, we want the building to foster a sense of connection and community.
That starts with a dozen learning communities, which will group students with a pair of faculty members for their four years. Those communities will also have spaces in the building to take classes, study, and relax. In addition, they come with lounges and kitchenettes, places that can serve as a home away from home.
Currently, medical students commute between three buildings to access the school’s anatomy lab, medical library, surgical skills center, and simulation center. In the future, all of those will be under one roof and just steps away from a sunlit central atrium that will serve as a hub.
The new building also reflects an evolution in how we educate future physicians. While it will still have lecture halls—each capable of seating more than 200 people—much of the work will unfold in case-method classrooms. Those smaller settings, accommodating up to 60 students, are circular and put a faculty member in the center. Yet that instructor won’t lecture to passive notetakers. Instead, they will guide and steer problem-based courses where students collaborate and apply the material they’ve learned.
The centralized location is also ideal for students once they enter clinical years. While they might be a mile away at one of three hospitals, they’ll occasionally return to the new building for lectures, simulation sessions, meeting with advisors, or simply reconnecting with their friends.
At the same time, students across our network of eight regional campuses continue to receive stellar training through our unified curriculum. Over the last decade, we’ve opened new facilities in West Lafayette, Evansville, and Bloomington. And IU continues to seek opportunities to partner with local health systems to expand residency opportunities in those communities.
BY SUPPORTING MEDICAL scholarships, you’re lowering a barrier to entry into the medical profession.
At IU School of Medicine, we aspire to train great physicians and help them pursue the path that fits their ambition and values. That shouldn’t hinge on affordability and paying off a student loan. Your generous gifts to talented, committed, and deserving students make that possible.
We’re grateful for all you have done and continue to do to support new generations of healers. And so are the patients in communities across Indiana and far beyond.