MU School of Medicine Introduces Class of 2021 at White Coat Ceremony

Students from the University of Missouri School of Medicine class of 2021 took their first steps toward becoming physicians during a White Coat Ceremony this morning at Jesse Hall on the University of Missouri campus.

“Now, more than ever, is an exciting time to be part of the MU School of Medicine,” said Patrick Delafontaine, MD, the Hugh E. and Sarah D. Stephenson Dean of MU School of Medicine. “With 32 percent of our new students representing various minority groups, diversity is perhaps one of the greatest strengths of the class. These are differences to celebrate, because — like their future patients — our students come from a variety of backgrounds and experiences.”

The class of 2021 consists of 128 students. Of this class, 32 percent of students self-identified as an ethnic minority. This includes students who are Asian, black, Latino, American Indian or Pacific Islander.

A goal of medical schools across the nation is to increase enrollment by traditionally underrepresented students, and 9 percent of students in the MU class of 2021 self-identified as underrepresented minorities.

The MU School of Medicine received 2,383 applications for the class of 2021, marking the highest number of applications ever received by the school. Class members are 53 percent male and 47 percent female. In addition, 30 percent of students are from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, 15 percent are from rural areas and 81 percent are from Missouri.

At the ceremony, the students were presented with their first white coats, the most common symbol of the medical profession for more than a century, in front of hundreds of their family members and friends. The annual event encourages new medical students to begin their education by upholding the highest values and standards of their profession.

The class of 2021 will be the first class to complete their medical education at the Patient-Centered Care Learning Center, a new $42.5 million education building at MU. The MU School of Medicine was able to expand its class size from 96 to 128 students because of a public-private partnership between MU, CoxHealth and Mercy Springfield. Through the partnership, MU was also able to open an additional clinical campus in Springfield where medical students began training in 2016.

The first White Coat Ceremony was conducted in 1993 at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. The ceremony was created by Arnold Gold, MD, a pediatric neurologist, who called the white coat his profession’s “cloak of compassion.” The Arnold P. Gold Foundation estimates that a White Coat Ceremony or similar rite of passage is now held at more than 90 percent of schools of medicine and osteopathy in the United States, as well as at all four medical schools in Israel. The first White Coat Ceremony at MU occurred in 1997.