New York Medical College is a graduate health sciences university based in Westchester County, New York. The college comprises three schools: The School of Medicine, the School of Public Health, and the School of Basic Medical Sciences. It has a student body of 1,660 students, 1,350 full-time faculty members, and 1,450 part-time and voluntary faculty. The university has more than 12,000 alumni active in medical practice, healthcare administration, public health, teaching and research.

The main campus of the university is located in Valhalla, which is also the site of the university's main hospital, Westchester Medical Center. The college's second academic medical center is the Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Center in Manhattan. The college oversees several other university hospitals in the greater New York City metropolitan area where students may rotate through over the course of their medical training. It is the leading academic biomedical research institution between New York City and Albany, with $44 million in research and programs funded by the National Institutes of Health, corporations and other sources. The university has specific strengths in the areas of cardiovascular disease, cancer, neuroscience and infectious disease.

History of the School of Medicine

New York Medical College owes its founding in 1860 to a group of civic leaders who believed that medical studies should be practiced with a better understanding of what the patient needs. This group of civic leaders was lead by the noted poet William Cullen Bryant who was an editor of the New York Evening Post. Bryant was concerned about the condition of hospitals and medical education in New York City. His main concern was with some of the medical practices being used to treat disease, which at the time included bleedings, purges, and the administration of strong drugs in too large of doses. Interest in the medical field rapidly grew over the next few years due to the United States Civil War, which generated a major need for health related occupations. As a result, the college was founded and opened as the New York Homeopathic Medical College on the corner of 20^th Street and Third Avenue, near Union Square in Manhattan. In the first semester there were 59 students and 8 professors.

A separate institution known as the New York Medical College for Women was founded a few years later in 1863. In 1867, it graduated the first female physician in the country, Emily Stowe. Three years later in 1870, Susan McKinney Stewart graduated as the first African-American female physician in New York State. When the Women's College closed in 1918, its students transferred to New York Medical College. In 1928 the College was the first medical school in the nation to establish a minority scholarship program.

The College occupied several different sites within New York City over the twentieth century, and finally relocated to Valhalla in the 1970s. The College became affiliated with the Archdiocese of New York in 1978, which helped provide financial stability and also established a shared commitment by the two institutions for the public good in the area of health care and the health sciences. The College now recognizes itself as in the Catholic tradition, and remains affiliated with several hospitals in the Archdiocese's health care network.

History of the School of Graduate Medical Education

The College's involvement in graduate education dates back to 1910, when its records show the existence of advanced courses and research programs. Graduate courses in surgery and medicine were offered in the 1920s. In 1938, the College's charter was amended to include the authority to offer graduate degrees such as the Master of Science in medicine, a doctorate in medical science, and a doctorate in public health. In 1963, the Graduate School of Medical Sciences was officially founded, establishing for the first time a center for graduate education separate from the medical curriculum. The school was renamed the Graduate School of Basic Medical Sciences in 1969.

School of Medicine

The School of Medicine at New York Medical College is the oldest and largest of the three graduate schools. The school has 2,944 faculty members serving in 6 basic science and 20 clinical departments.

There are 774 actively enrolled students with 31% from the state of New York. Matriculates in the class of 2010 graduated from 93 college and universities across the U.S, are residents of 27 states. The class of 2010 received 9,647 applications for 194 positions. Students have an opportunity to earn joint degrees, combining the M.D. with an M.P.H., M.S. or a Ph.D. in the Graduate School of Basic Medical Sciences or School of Public Health. Grading at the school is Honors/High Pass/Pass/Fail. In 2008, the passing rate for the USMLE Step 1 exam was 98%, above the 94% national average.

New York Medical College School of Medicine awards approximately 190 Doctor of Medicine degrees per year. In the graduating class of 2008, 22% entered the field of internal medicine, 11% radiology, 10% emergency medicine, 10% general surgery, 10% pediatrics, 5% anesthesiology, 5% neurology, 5% ophthalmology, 5% family medicine, 4% physical medicine and rehabilitation, 3% orthopedic surgery, and 2% obstetrics and gynecology. To date, 13,270 physicians have graduated from the School of Medicine with 97% being board certified. Approximately 917 School of Medicine graduates currently serve on an American medical school faculty, including 18 department chairs.

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