School of Medicine Holds Annual White Coat Ceremony for Incoming Class of 2028
ST. LOUIS – The Saint Louis University School of Medicine welcomed the next generation of physicians during the school’s 2024 White Coat Ceremony on Sunday, July 28, in St. Francis Xavier College Church. The ceremony is the official start of first-year students’ journey into medicine.
Christine Jacobs, M.D., vice president for medical affairs and dean of SLU’s School of Medicine, addressed the audience. As representatives of many faiths, Jacobs said it was fitting to gather “in this holy place” to welcome doctors-in-training to the sacred profession of medicine.
Saint Louis University School of Medicine welcomed the incoming Class of 2028 during the school’s 2024 White Coat Ceremony on Sunday, July 28, in St. Francis Xavier College Church. Photo by Kyle Kabance.
“There will be days when the academic rigor and workload will make you want to give up,” Jacobs recalled her earlier days as a medical student. “I was overwhelmed by the enormity of medical knowledge and the complexity of putting it all together.”
Then, Jacobs said the medical facts will start to make sense, and a patient’s experience will make it relevant as students realize their dreams of becoming doctors as she had before them. In the years ahead, Jacobs said students will see the best of humanity and experience the burden of human tragedy. Yet, they will find balance in the excitement of learning the art and science of medicine, the joy of caring for their patients, and the privilege of becoming part of a team of physicians, nurses, and other health care givers will affirm for students that they’ve found the right calling.
Tina Chen, M.D., associate dean of simulation and clinical skills and associate professor of emergency medicine, cautioned students in her keynote that they will encounter patients with any number of permutations.
“Stable and dying. Young and old. Wealthy and impoverished,” Chen said. “In this profession, your patients will need your generosity, knowledge, time, and unconditional understanding of who they are, where they came from, and the depth of their need.”
School officials say the annual event creates a psychological contract for professionalism and empathy in the practice of medicine from the start of medical training. This is symbolized by cloaking each student with a clinical white coat, the mantle of the profession.
During the ceremony, each student was called by name and donned a white coat by a physician, either from the School of Medicine or a loved one. The event concluded with the new class reciting the Hippocratic Oath.
“To the Class of 2028, I hope you feel different when you put that white coat on today,” said Chad Miller, M.D., professor of internal medicine and senior associate dean for undergraduate medical education, in his welcome remarks. “You carry the legacy of students and faculty who have come before you. You are now part of the Saint Louis University School of Medicine tradition.”
Class of 2028
This year, the School of Medicine received 5,809 applications and interviewed 726 applicants. The Class of 2028 consists of 80 women and 96 men, and 63% of students hail from the Midwest. A total of 36 students are from Missouri, with another 47 from Illinois.
Almost 20% of students have relatives who are School of Medicine graduates or current and former residents, fellows, faculty or staff at SLU or SSM Health. The average MCAT score among students is 513, with an average GPA of 3.89.
White Coat Ceremony 2024
Latest Newslink
- Six SLU Students Advance to Semifinalist Stage for Fulbright GrantsSaint Louis University's Office of Competitive Fellowships and Scholarships has announced that six SLU students have been selected as semifinalists for the prestigious Fulbright U.S. Student Program. Fulbright decisions are updated regularly, and applicants will be notified in the spring whether they have been selected as finalists to receive the award.
- Tickets to See Colson Whitehead Receive 2025 St. Louis Literary Award Go on Sale on February 7Tickets for the St. Louis Literary Award ceremony honoring Pulitzer Prize-winning author Colson Whitehead will go on sale Friday, Feb. 7, at 10 a.m. Whitehead will receive the award on April 9 at the Sheldon Concert Hall. Tickets for the 2025 St. Louis Literary Award event are $15 and available through Metrotix.
- Second SLU Golf and Give Challenge Set for February 25-26The Saint Louis University community is invited to chip in and stock the Billiken Bounty food pantry by playing miniature golf holes created by SLU students. The innovation challenge is led by SLU's School of Science and Engineering and Chaifetz Center for Entrepreneurship.
- Chaifetz Center for Entrepreneurship Accepting Applications for Second New Venture Accelerator CohortAfter a successful first year, Saint Louis University’s Chaifetz Center for Entrepreneurship is opening up applications for its second New Venture Accelerator (NVA). The NVA, which offers students and young alumni an opportunity to launch their businesses with financial support, resources, and mentoring from SLU experts, launched in 2024 with an initial cohort of four businesses.
- Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Tribute Speakers Urge HopefulnessTaking action and working to improve life was a common theme at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Tribute ceremony on Thursday morning. SLU and St. Louis community members gathered in the St. Louis Room of the Busch Student Center for the annual event, a partnership between SLU and the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, to remember and honor King.
- Sawday Shares Significance of Nothingness at James Russell Lowell Prize CeremonyA lot can be said about the blank spaces in literature. That was one of the messages from Jonathan Sawday, Ph.D., SLU's Walter J. Ong, S.J. Chair in Humanities in the English Department. Wednesday afternoon, a standing-room-only crowd gathered in the Pere Marquette Gallery to hear Sawday's thoughts on his award-winning text, Blanks, Print, Space, and Void in English Renaissance Literature: An Archaeology of Absence.