The Alpert Medical School welcomed its largest class ever this year totalling 120 students following the opening of the schools downtown facility last fall. With the building constructed in downtown Providences Knowledge District able to accommodate more students, the school matriculated 11 additional students in this years class, up from 109 in the class of 2015. The school has expanded from 310 students in 2001 to 421 students this year, according to Ed Wing, dean of medicine and biological sciences.

The admittance of the Med Schools largest-ever class was made possible by the new facility, Wing said. Admitting classes of 120 will expand the school to 480 students in the next few years, he said.

Its a terrific building, Wing said, adding that the schools old space in the BioMedical Center did not allow for expansion. Everything in the (new) building has allowed us to provide better education.

The Med School also witnessed a surge in applications for spots in the class of 2016, with a roughly 20 percent increase from 2,825 applicants in 2011 to 3,344 applications in 2012, according to Philip Gruppuso, associate dean of medical education and professor of pediatrics.

There is in general a physician shortage in the United States, Gruppuso said. He noted that the Association of American Medical Colleges has called for a substantial increase in the countrys supply of doctors and that the University is hoping to aid this goal. Gruppuso said the Med Schools expansion was part of a long-term process that occurred after administrators received permission from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the national accrediting organization for medical degree programs.

Wing said administrators have nothing definite planned to expand the student body any further than 480 students.

The Med School hired more staff to accommodate the larger building, but they did not need to hire more faculty members, Wing said, adding that the school boasts a total of 2,000 faculty members, including 600 full-time clinical faculty. The Med School revamped its curriculum but did not add additional classes or expand the size of courses.

Gruppuso said the University is still considered a small medical school according to national rankings of medical degree programs by size.

We had space and resources and faculty to be able to meet the needs of this number of students, he said. We were very confident this (expansion) was not going to result in any kind of erosion of the quality of the medical program.

As part of its expansion, the Med School introduced a new academy model of advising and training last year, with each class divided into three academies of around 40 students in order to facilitate greater advising services and a better sense of community. Each academy space provides locker and study space, designated advisers and other training services to students to help break down the student body into smaller sections.

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Med School admits largest class yet