New Medical Students Welcomed with White Coats in Traditional Ceremony

Albany Medical College celebrated its White Coat Ceremony today with 145 incoming medical students, their friends, and families at the Kitty Carlisle Hart Theatre in The Egg at the Empire State Plaza. In addition to donning their symbolic white coats for the first time, students also recited the Declaration of Geneva, a modern-day physician’s oath.

Selected from more than 13,000 applicants, the Class of 2028 comes from 25 states, including 49 students from New York and 24 from the Capital Region. Thirty-one languages are spoken by the new students, and 21 birth countries are represented.

Fifty-nine of the new students graduated from one of Albany Medical College’s joint degree programs at Siena College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Union College. Thirty-three are entering with master’s degrees and one with a doctoral degree, while the majority have undergraduate degrees in biologic sciences.

“Each year, our campus and our community are enriched by our incoming students’ diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives,” said Alan S. Boulos, MD, ’94, The Lynne and Mark D. Groban, MD ’67 Distinguished Dean of Albany Medical College. “We look forward to getting to know this next generation of physicians, and to teaching them to become compassionate, skilled physicians who will shape the future of medicine.”

The ceremony wraps up a week of orientation activities and the students’ first week of classes.