Meet the Entering Class!

The 109 members of the MD Class of 2015 (57 women and 52 men) comprise the largest first-year medical school class in Brown’s history. They have earned degrees in more than 40 different majors, from African Studies to Modern Culture and Media to Statistics at 48 US or Canadian colleges and universities. They hail from 28 different states and one foreign country (China), and speak 18 different languages. Ten students have advanced degrees, with graduate work in teaching, engineering, public health, humanities, and biology.

Fifty-two students applied through the AMCAS route of admission, which is the largest cohort in the class. Thirty-nine students were enrolled as undergraduates in the Program in Liberal Medical Education, although six students took time after their Brown graduation to pursue fellowships and other service opportunities. Fifteen members of the class entered through Postbaccalaureate Linkage Programs at Bryn Mawr College, Goucher College, Columbia, and Johns Hopkins University. Three members of the class were selected through the Early Identification Program, which adds native Rhode Islanders and one Mississippi resident to the mix.

True to the Brown tradition, the MD Class of 2015 is an accomplished group with eclectic backgrounds and interests. Twenty-seven incoming students self-identified as members of groups underrepresented in medicine:  15 (14%) are African-American, and 16 (15%) are from Latino backgrounds (primarily Mexican and Puerto Rican Americans).  42% are white, 23% are Asian/South Asian, and 6% of the class prefers not to identify with one ethnicity.

The average age is 23, and ages range from 21 to 37 years. More than half of the 109 students have waited a year before matriculating to Brown, while 34 have taken off more than two years between college and medical school. Experiential diversity is extraordinary: the class includes a West Point cadet, a Fulbright scholar who studied German Hip-Hop culture, three Teach for America veterans, an independent film producer, several rock climbers and mountaineers, a horse trainer, numerous accomplished jazz and classical musicians, a poet, and varsity athletes in swimming, rowing, hockey, track and field, soccer, and football to name a few.

Interest in global health is high among this class, 35% of whom report having had international health experiences already. Countries represented include Peru, Kenya, China, and Vietnam. Programs through which they have done this work include the Peace Corps, CARE, and ChildFund. Characteristically, the members of this class have had extensive volunteer experiences, as well, with over 80% having demonstrated significant commitments to health care or civic life in clinical, community, or other settings.