hile the goals
of education
have remained
constant over
the years, the
new students
arriving at SPH,
SDM and BUSM pres-
ent some marked
differences from their
counterparts of a
generation ago. New
technologies,
scientific breakthroughs
and changes in
cultural attitudes have
left and
will continue to leave large
imprints on
tomorrow's health care
professionals.
"As a result of
the tremendous recent
advances in
technology, the students of
today learn
differently from their earlier
counterparts,"
said SDM Dean Spencer
Frankl, DDS, MSD.
"These students
have never known
life without a comput-
er, and 90
percent of their course material
is electronic,
based on both the Web and
CD-ROM discs.
They have wireless
access to the
Internet while in class, as
well as intranet
access to many course
Web sites
developed by the faculty.
"State-of-the-art
laboratories, such as
the Simulation
Learning Center that pro-
vides SDM
students with virtual learning
experience,
exemplify the school's com-
mitment to
technology and staying
abreast of the
latest advances," Frankl
continued. "As
the dental and medical
professions
become increasingly more
integrated,
computer technology becomes
more vital to
patient care."
While the numbers
of students
enrolled in the
four-year DMD program
at SDM and the
four-year MD program
at BUSM have
stayed relatively the same
over the years -
approximately 100 and
150 respectively
- a component that
has grown is the
Division of Graduate
Medical Sciences.
This year there are 575
students in the
division's programs.
SPH has also seen
a rise in the num-
ber of incoming
students. SPH now
matriculates
about 250 students per year,
more than double
the number of just 15
years
ago.
According to SPH
Dean Robert
Meenan, MD, MPH,
MBA, this year's
entering class
at SPH is much more het-
erogeneous than
classes that entered 15 or
20 years ago.
"Whereas we once admitted
mostly
part-time, working students in
their 30s from
the Boston area, we now
admit a large
number of young, post-bac-
calaureate
students from across the coun-
try, as well as
a substantial number of
international
students from around the
globe," he said.
Preliminary statistics
show that SPH's
225 incoming students
range in age
from 22 to 54 years, and
come from 25
different countries.
"The new class
at SPH is at the same
time more and
less qualified than its
predecessors,"
Meenan continued. "They
possess greater
academic capabilities, as
measured by GRE
scores, GPAs and com-
puter literacy,
but have less public health
experience and
appreciation of broad
social and
political forces.
"These changes
are exciting and chal-
lenging. They
require us to make major
changes in
curriculum and student servic-
es so that we
can better serve a much dif-
ferent student
body today," he added.
BUSM's class of
2005 reflects another
cultural trend -
the entrance of more
women into a
profession that even 20
years ago was
predominantly male.
According to
John O'Connor, MD, dean
for Admissions
at BUSM, the number of
women accepted
by the medical school
has increased
over the years, from 10 per-
cent in 1971 to
33 percent in 1981, and
to nearly 50
percent in 2001.
O'Connor
explained that not all
female
applicants accepted by the school
this year chose
to attend, but roughly
one-half of all
the students initially
accepted were
women. "The medical
school accepts
men and women in the
ratio in which
they apply," O'Connor
said. "The
applicant pool of women is
steadily
rising."