University Times

As part of his annual state of the medical school address, Arthur S. Levine, senior vice chancellor for the Health Sciences and dean of the School of Medicine, shared some figures about Pitt’s medical students.

By the numbers

In the 2012-13 academic year, 589 students — 47 percent women, 53 percent men — were enrolled in Pitt’s medical school.

One-quarter were Pennsylvania residents, while three-quarters hailed from outside the state. “This is truly a national medical school and certainly competitive as a national medical school,” Levine said.

Eighteen percent of Pitt’s medical school students are from underrepresented minorities, placing Pitt in the top 10 among non-minority medical schools with respect to its percentage of underrepresented minority student population, Levine said.

Levine said 297 students were enrolled in the medical school’s PhD programs and 83 students were preparing to receive both medical and PhD degrees through the medical scientist training program.

Full-time medical school faculty numbered 2,267 and teaching compensation — derived mainly from students’ tuition dollars — totaled $18.5 million.

Scholarly research

This year’s medical school class is the fifth to have been required to complete a scholarly research project. “We are one of the few medical schools nationally that require all of our medical students to participate in research throughout their medical school years,” Levine said. “They need not work in a laboratory. They can engage in clinical research, they can engage in health services research or outcomes research.”

He cited what he called a “precipitous decrease in the number of physicians embarking on investigative careers over the last 25 years in this country.

“My colleagues and I are quite focused on seeing if we can expose more students to a life in research, at least if not in all of their career, in part of their career.

“Perhaps an even more important rationale for exposing all of our students to research is we believe they will learn the full reach of their creative and imaginative potential and how to exercise that potential with independence — and how to do so with analytic rigor. And we think, having done all that, they will become better physicians.”

Student output

The 2012 graduating class garnered 64 fellowships, grants and national awards, 29 School of Medicine awards and made more than 227 national presentations and abstracts, “an absolutely extraordinary figure,” Levine said.

In addition, students in the class published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers and abstracts with more currently in review.

Residencies

Sixty-seven percent of 2013 graduates have matched to one of the top residencies in their fields nationally, Levine said, and 19 percent are staying in UPMC top-tier residencies. Fourteen percent matched in surgical specialties, 35 percent in primary care specialties and 38 percent in hospital-based specialties.

Student debt

In-state tuition at the medical school is $44,726, while out-of-state students pay $45,846, Levine said.

Eighty-eight percent of the medical school’s 2012 graduates left with debt, averaging $146,659. Sixty-seven percent of the graduates owed $100,000 or more; 25 percent of them owed at least $200,000, Levine said, noting that high debt constrains students’ choice of specialty and location.

—Kimberly K. Barlow