For the class of 2022, the school received 4,968 applications to fill 104 seats. The median GPA for the class was 3.89, and the median MCAT was 521.[3]
The school employs the "Yale System" established by Dean Winternitz in the 1920s,[5] wherein first- and second-year students are not
graded or
ranked among their classmates. In addition, course
examinations are anonymous and are intended only for students' self-evaluation. Student performance is thus based on
seminar participation, qualifying examinations (if a student fails, it is his or her responsibility to meet with a professor and arrange for an alternative assessment - passing grades are not released), clinical clerkship evaluations, and the
United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE). Prior to
graduation, students are required to submit a
thesis based on
original research.[5]
Rankings
For 2024, U.S. News & World Report ranked Yale School of Medicine tied at #10 in Best Medical Schools: Research and tied at #108 in Best Medical Schools: Primary Care.[6]
History
In 18th century United States, credentials were not needed to practice medicine. Prior to the founding of the medical school, Yale graduates would train through an apprenticeship in order to become physicians.
Yale PresidentEzra Stiles conceived the idea of training physicians at Yale and ultimately, his successor
Timothy Dwight IV helped found the medical school. The school was chartered in 1810 and opened in New Haven in 1813.
Nathan Smith (medicine and surgery) and
Benjamin Silliman (pharmacology) were the first faculty members. Silliman was a professor of chemistry and taught at both
Yale College and the Medical School. The other two founding faculty were
Jonathan Knight, anatomy, physiology and surgery and
Eli Ives, pediatrics.[7]
One of Yale's earliest medical graduates was Dr. Asaph Leavitt Bissell of
Hanover, New Hampshire, who graduated in 1815, a member of the school's second graduating class. Following his graduation, Dr. Bissell moved to
Suffield, Connecticut, a tobacco-farming community where his parents came from, and where he practiced as a country physician for the rest of his life.[7] The saddlebags that Dr. Bissell carried in his practice, packed with paper packets and glass bottles, are today in the school's Medical Historical Library.[8]
The original building (at Grove and Prospect) later became Sheffield Hall, part of the
Sheffield Scientific School (razed in 1931). In 1860, the school moved to Medical Hall on York Street, near Chapel (this building was razed in 1957). In 1925, the school moved to its current campus, neighboring the hospital. This campus includes the Sterling Hall of Medicine, Boyer Center for Molecular Medicine (1991, designed by
Cesar Pelli), Anlyan Center (2003, designed by Payette and
Venturi Scott Brown) and the Amistad Building (2007, designed by Herbert Newman).
On March 28, 2022, Jamie Petrone-Codrington, a former administrator pled guilty to fraud and tax charges for the theft of over $40 million dollars of computer and electronic software.[9] Jamie Petrone-Codrington illegally bought and sold hardware purchased for the School of Medicine, starting in 2013. According to the court records, Petrone-Codrington was turned in by an anonymous tip after being seen loading computer equipment into her private vehicle, and after ordering high volumes of equipment.[10][11]
Deans
Before 1845, there was no dean. Nathan Smith, followed by Jonathan Knight, provided leadership in the early years.[7]
Charles Hooker (1845–1863): Professor of Anatomy and Physiology
Charles Augustus Lindsley (1863–1885): Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics, later the Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine
Herbert Eugene Smith (1885–1910): physician and chemist
^
abCalott Wang, Dora (August 2020).
"The Yale System at 100 Years". Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine. 93 (3): 441–451 – via National Library of Medicine.