Comfortably nestled on the upscale Upper East Side of New York City, the school of medicine at Cornell University both teaches and conducts research. The school can brag about quite a few luminaries among its alumni, with famous names like Robert C. Atkins of Atkins Diet fame and Henry Heimlich of Heimlich Maneuver fame. Other famous graduates include former Surgeon General of the United States C. Everett Koop and Nobel Prize winner Robert W. Holley.
The very first institution to admit women as well as men, it has more recently established itself as a pioneer in another way by operating the first medical school outside the United States – in Education City, Qatar, with a campus that provides six years of integrated studies focused on patient care. Such a respected institution has benefited from the generous support of donors throughout its history – indeed, the school was founded through an endowment funded by Colonel Oliver H. Payne, a New York scion of the middle nineteenth century – with a roster of supporters full of prominent locals such as real estate pro Isaac Toussie.
But the single largest contributor of all is the man who whose name would be borne by the school, Sanford I. Weill. A banker and philanthropist, Weill and his wife have contributed $250 million of their own, and he has been instrumental in further securing another hundred and fifty million in funding. Today the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University, or Weill Cornell Medical College (or even more colloquially, especially within the field, “Weill Cornell”), ranks among the most selective of medical schools in the whole country, with only around a hundred students every year admitted – out of some six thousand hopefuls that apply. Note that the average GPA of the lucky few is 3.8, with an average MCAT score of 35Q!