Class of ’08 welcomed at annual White Coat Ceremony

It wasn’t a fashion show, but more than 120 incoming students donned new attire Aug. 13 during the Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine’s annual White Coat Ceremony. The ceremony welcomes incoming medical students, and the white coat is symbolic of their transition into the study of medicine and their role as care givers.

The class of 2008 includes 61 women and 62 men, ranging in age from 18 to 29. Each first-year student was presented with a new white coat just before the group took the student oath to “acknowledge and embrace all privileges and responsibilities of a physician in training and a member of the medical community.”

Former medical school dean George Dock, M.D., began the White Coat Ceremony in the early 1900s, and he, one of the first full-time professors of medicine in the U.S., would have been impressed with this year’s incoming class.

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“This class has fantastic academic and personal qualifications,” Edwin Dodson, M.D., associate dean for medical admissions, said. “Their personal talents and accomplishments equal their academic credentials. Various members of the class are artists, writers, athletes and seasoned community volunteers.”

Washington University School of Medicine is ranked number one in the nation for student selectivity by U.S. News & World Report, a measure based on the incoming class’s average GPA and MCAT scores. The mean GPA of the new class is 3.86, and the mean total MCAT score is 36.7, equal to or slightly above the extremely high qualifications of incoming medical students for the last several years.

School of Medicine Class of '08
School of Medicine Class of ’08

The Admissions Committee interviewed 1,168 candidates from a total of 3,921 applicants before selecting the 123 members of this class.

The class originates from 36 states and seven foreign countries. Students come from 59 different undergraduate colleges and universities. Washington University in St. Louis and Harvard are the top two providers of new students.

Listed below are the students names along with the university or college from which they came.

Elaine Ahillen, University of Kansas

Jacqueline Ahillen, University of Kansas

Christina Ahn, Stanford University

Theodore Armstrong, Montana State University – Bozeman

Caroline Arthur, Brown University

Molly Arvin, Washington University in St. Louis

Jason Baron, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Lisa Bauman, Washington University in St. Louis

Neil Bhamb, Northwestern University

Kathryn Bitter, Baylor University

Seth Bloom, Washington University in St. Louis

Jason Brant, Washington University in St. Louis

Justin Brooks, University of Maryland – Baltimore

Kristin Brown, Northwestern University

Rebecca Chancey, University of Georgia

Roger Cole, Rice University

Nathan Cox, Georgetown University

Rishikesh Dalal, Harvard University

Shadmehr Demehri, Washington State University

Manuel Doblado, Washington University in St. Louis

Maia Dorsett, University of Chicago

Jessica Duan, Yale University

Charlene Ellsworth, Tufts University

Rachel Engen, Northwestern University

Jeremy Etzkorn, University of Illinois

Sarah Finger, Washington University in St. Louis

Elizabeth Fowler, Washington University in St. Louis

Noopur Gangopadhyay, University of Virginia

Michael Geske, University of Michigan

Zahra Ghiassi Nejad, New York University

Nsangou Ghogomu, Univerisity of Illinois

Leah Givens, University of Georgia

Patricia Goldhoff, Harvard University

Elizabeth Goodman, Pomona College

Anjali Gopalan, Rice University

Daniel Graesser, University of Illinois

Cheryl Gray, Harvard University

Jennifer Griffith, Indiana University

Brent Griffith, University of Notre Dame

Scott Hadland, McGill University

James Harper, Rice University

Beth Helmink, Illinois State University

Ramin Herati, University of Missouri – Rolla

Mai-Lan Ho, Stanford University

Stacy Hood, Washington University in St. Louis

David Hormozdi, University of Florida

Benjamin Jacobs, Utah State University

Scott Kaiser, Georgetown University

Julia Kauffman, University of California – San Diego

Alistair Kent, Harding University

Andrew King, Northwestern University

Michael Klein, University of Notre Dame

Sarah Kovnar, Washington University in St. Louis

Marie Kozel, Emory University

Michael Kwiatt, University of Notre Dame

Aaron Lee, Harvard University

Eugene Lee, Stanford University

Andrew Leitner, Tufts University

David Lortscher, University of California – Santa Barbara

Ryan Luginbuhl, Cornell University Endowed Colleges

Matthew MacEwan, Case Western Reserve University

Andrew Maclennan, Tufts University

Robert Mallery, Rice University

Erin Martens, Northwestern University

Stephen McCartney, Johns Hopkins University

Kathleen McKeon, Yale University

Adam Meadows, Andrews University

Ifeanyichuk Megwalu, University of Toronto

Katherine Mercer, Indiana University

Samuel Merrill, University of Arizona

Michelle Moniz, Johns Hopkins University

Michael Montana, University of Virginia

Valliammai Muthappan, Northwestern University

Kari Nelson, University of Wisconsin – Madison

Robert Nickel, University of Virginia

Eric Nordsieck, University of Illinois

Kwadwo Oduro, Harvard University

Oluwafunmil Okuyemi, Rutgers University

Jeremy Orr, University of Southern California

Jesse Otero, Stanford University

Kaushal Patel, Case Western Reserve University

Avani Patel, Duke University

Sean Peden, Brown University

Vinaya Puppala, University of lllinois

Amanda Raya, Pomona College

Anjani Reddy, Swarthmore College

Jennifer Reeve, University of Michigan

Andrew Reinink, Michigan State University

Charles Rickert, New York University

Clare Ridley, Columbia University

Ilana Rosman, Brown University

Shada Rouhani, McGill University

Adam Rouse, Washington University in St. Louis

Anthony Rowe, University of Pittsburgh

Wesley Russell, Georgetown University

Michael Sacerdote, Harvard University

Sandra Schurman, Vanderbilt University

Sunitha Sequeira, Washington University in St. Louis

Efrat Shavit, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Annemarie Sheets, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Tammy Shen, Duke University

Yeamie Sheref, University of Pennsylvania

Arsham Sheybani, Louisiana State University

Devon Snow, Tufts University

Steven Sperry, University of Virginia

Russell Strom, Harvard University

Christopher Sumey, St. Olaf College

Melanie Sutter, Baylor University

Jennifer Thompson, Bradley University

James Tschudy, Brigham Young University

Diwakar Turaga, University of Massachusetts

Kristin VanderPloeg, Colgate University

Sunitha Vemula, Johns Hopkins University

Alecia Vogel, St. Louis University

Tracey Wagner, University of Wisconsin – Madison

Julie Walcutt, Washington University in St. Louis

Monica Walker, Northwestern University

Karolyn Wanat, Florida Institute of Technology

Brian White, Harvard University

Robert Wong, Yale University

Ambrose Wong, University of British Columbia

Anna Woodbury, Rice University

Daniel Zurcher, Brigham Young University