Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections

Stimson Hall, home to the Ithaca division of the Cornell Medical School, circa 1903.

Ezra Cornell's "any person ... any study" vision didn't at first extend to medical education. But Cornell's first president, Andrew D. White, and his successors, saw medicine as a crucial university offering, and courses in the medical sciences were first offered in 1878. The Cornell Medical College was established April 14, 1898, in New York City, and a medical course was taught in Ithaca in Stimson Hall. However, American medical schools did not require an undergraduate degree for admission until 1907. Until then, a high school education was adequate. In 1908 Cornell became the third medical school to require an undergraduate diploma for admission. At first, enrollment plummeted. But by 1920 "the flood of 150 applications for entrance caused the setting of a limitation" of 60 students per year.

-- Adapted by George Lowery from Morris Bishop's "A History of Cornell."