COLLEGE OF MEDICINE HISTORY
The college, the largest medical school in the United States, has an internationally renowned faculty of four thousand at four locations across the state. Nearly thirteen hundred students are educated each year. The College of Medicine is one of the most diverse medical schools in the United States. African-Americans, Latinos, and American Indians have, since the late 1970s, constituted about one-fourth of each entering class. Opportunities for women also have expanded. Thirty-seven percent of all medical students are women.
The College of Physicians and Surgeons was
founded as a proprietary college in 1882. Prospective students needed to
be only eighteen years old and of "good moral character" to study
medicine. 
The College of Physicians and Surgeons
expanded rapidly in the 1890s, purchasing the West Side Hospital in 1896,
and affiliating with the University of Illinois in 1897. Between 1895 and
1901, enrollment at P&S exploded from 235 students to 710. By the
early 1930s, with the consolidation of the University's professional
colleges on the near west side, Chicago was home to one of the world's
largest concentration of medical institutions, including the University,
Rush Medical School, St. Luke's -Presbyterian Hospital, and Cook County
Hospital. In 1941, the state legislature created the Illinois Medical
District, which had as its mandate the coordination of medical training,
patient care, and research. 
The entrance to the University's
professional colleges, as represented by the three major colleges,
dentistry, medicine, and pharmacy (left). 
On September
1, 1982, UIC was formed by the consolidation of two campuses: the Medical
Center, which dates back to the 19th century, and the comprehensive
Chicago Circle campus (right) which opened in 1965. Prior to the opening
of Chicago Circle campus, the University of Illinois had a two-year
undergraduate program at Navy Pier which first opened in 1946 to educate
returning veterans. The campus now has more than 100 buildings that cover
300 acres just west of Chicago's Loop. 
Today, UIC is the largest institution
of higher learning in the Chicago area. The campus enrolls roughly 26,000
students and employs more than 11,000 people. The Medical Center provides
quality health care to 400,000 patients a year and is ranked by U.S. News
and World Report among the best in the country. One in every six Illinois
physicians is a UIC graduate.
© 2006 University of Illinois at Chicago
Section of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition
University of
Illinois at Chicago
840 S. Wood Street (M/C 716)
Chicago, Illinois
60612
Telephone: 312-996-6651
Fax: 312-996-5103