Dean Flier called the meeting to order. He announced that plans are under way for the nomination and election of candidates to fill the Faculty Council seats that will become vacant as of June 30, 2016.

Within the next month a nomination ballot will be distributed to eligible voting faculty, followed by an election of the nominees. In June, the new slate of members for the 2016-2017 academic year will be announced. Dean Flier encouraged Faculty Council members to urge colleagues to participate and vote. Those who will be completing their three-year terms are eligible to run again.

Dean Flier commented on the agenda for the meeting, which focused on incoming, ongoing and outgoing medical students.

Dean Flier then introduced Stephanie Hunt, director of financial aid.

Hunt briefly introduced herself as she has been the director of financial aid for only six months. She presented the Harvard Medical School financial aid program goals and results. Hunt explained that the program is need-based with the student (and spouse) and the student’s parents having the primary responsibility for financing medical education. HMS financial aid was designed to help meet shortfalls. There was a brief discussion of the parental financial expectation, and Hunt emphasized that HMS does not honor a parent’s unwillingness to help. She noted that the financial aid application, parental tax returns and other documentation are reviewed to determine if there is a need for financial aid.

Hunt reviewed tuition, cost of attendance, unit loans and the HMS scholarship budget for the past eight years. She also compared HMS to peer institutions in the categories of average cost of attendance, average need-based scholarship, average annual loan borrowing, average graduating student debt and unit loan comparison. Hunt concluded with a discussion of program’s challenges. The most critical issue she raised is the challenge to sustain the HMS scholarship budget.

A general discussion of tuition followed.

Next, Dean Flier introduced Robert Mayer, faculty associate dean for admissions, to give the annual Admissions Committee report.

Mayer presented a breakdown of the HMS class and the distribution of students among the Pathways and Health and Science Technology (HST) programs, as well as the organizational structure of the admissions office and committees.

Annual Class Size: 165 students total

Pathways: 135 students

HST: 30 students

Mayer described the Admissions Committee process. Each applicant is assigned to a subcommittee based on his or her undergraduate school, with Harvard applicants distributed across the four subcommittees. Recently, four new faculty members and 16 new students were added to the subcommittees with four returning students serving on the main committee.

Mayer described the HMS class entering in 2015, which includes students from 33 states and six foreign countries and 60 undergraduate institutions. Sixty-eight percent of the students had taken one or more gap years between undergraduate education and medical school. He also outlined the reasons that people decline acceptance into HMS, which include the absence of merit scholarships, finances, family/geographic location and dislike of the program.

Mayer highlighted the actions taken to improve the interview experience in response to the feedback gathered from applicants two years ago. The 2015 initiatives included:

• Pizza with students at Vanderbilt Hall the night before interviews

• Lunch with students in private room

• Society masters/associate masters stopping in to lunch to greet applicants

• Staff-led campus tours twice daily

• Applicant lounge in Gordon Hall used for luggage storage, phone calls and lounging

Mayer reported that, for the 2015 – 2016 recruitment season, offers were made to 196 applicants (2.8 percent of total) from 80 undergraduate schools. Completed applications increased to 7,069, a 16 percent rise. Dr. Mayer speculated that the increase in applicants could be a result of the new curriculum, a national trend or both.

Following his report, Mayer entertained questions.

Dean Flier then took a moment to recognize Nancy Oriol and thanked her for her dedication and service in the role of dean for students for the past 18 years. She is stepping down as dean as of June 30, 2016, and will continue to serve HMS and the School’s students through a number of community initiatives.

Oriol distributed the recent Match Day results. She reported that approximately 53 percent of the graduating students will participate in HMS-affiliated residency programs. Approximately 23 percent of the students matched with programs in internal medicine, the largest specialty selected.

Oriol also presented data illustrating that over the last 10 years no particular trends have emerged related to the selection of sub-specialties. She said that 5 percent of the graduating students chose not to go immediately into residency training. She explained that during the fourth year of medical school, in addition to taking additional clinical courses, students must apply for residency, which can require significant time for interviewing and traveling to interviews. The application process is done online, and most students apply to 60 programs due to competition and networking with peers.

A general discussion followed.

Dean Flier than introduced Jessica Stuart, HMS ’19 and Jessica Holtzman, HMS ’19 to give the student council report.

Holtzman and Stuart gave a broad overview of the Student Council. The purpose of the council is to foster community among students, serve as an umbrella for student organizations and advocate on behalf of students. There are 23 general members representing Pathways, HST and HSDM who have different roles (society representatives, treasurer, student organizations manager, financial aid representatives and graduate council representatives). There are six executive members who work closely with Dean Oriol and Carla Fujimoto in Student Affairs.

Holtzman and Stuart gave a snapshot of the student groups on campus. There are five main categories of groups that the council funds: medical specialty groups, religious groups, community service groups, general interest groups, community service groups and socio-cultural groups.

After some questions, Dean Flier adjourned the meeting.