More than 9,600 applicants vied for 190 openings for first-year students at Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine.
Dr. Matthew Emery, Community Assistant Dean for the Grand Rapids campus, notes that’s an increase of 16% this year.
“80% of those students are from the state of Michigan. We do have another 20% from other states across the country and even one student from Canada.”
Emery says retaining those students to work in Michigan after graduation is a major goal, as is increasing the number of medical providers in underserved areas.
“I was particularly heartened to see that of those 190 incoming students, 174 are from medically underserved counties. And so to the extent that those students will be more likely to go back to the kind of environment where they came from, I think that will help with that particular part of our mission as well.”
Studies are roughly split between MSU’s campuses in East Lansing and on Grand Rapids’ Medical Mile.
All first-year students are welcomed with the 2026 Matriculation Ceremony at which they are presented with the first white doctor’s coat of their careers.
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