page_title: Weill Cornell Medicine
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Weill Cornell Medicine / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Picture of the Weill Cornell Medical Complex, seen from the Rockefeller University
context_page_description: Weill Cornell Medicine, officially the Joan & Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University, is the biomedical research unit and medical school of Cornell University, a private Ivy League university. The medical college is located at 1300 York Avenue, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, along with the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences. The college is named for benefactor and former Citigroup chairman Sanford Weill.
  As one of the most selective medical schools in the United States, Cornell enrolls approximately 100 students per class from a pool of over 6,000 applicants, interviewing 700-750 applicants. For the class of 2022, the average undergraduate GPA and MCAT scores for successful applicants were 3.85 and 518, respectively. The Weill Cornell Medical College is currently tied for 11th place on U.S. News & World Report's "Best Medical Schools: Research" ranking.
  Weill Cornell Medicine is affiliated with New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center, Hospital for Special Surgery, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Rockefeller University, all of which are located nearby on York Avenue.
context_section_description: The school was founded on April 14, 1898, with an endowment by Col. Oliver H. Payne. It was established in New York because Ithaca, where the main campus is located, was deemed too small to offer adequate clinical training opportunities. James Ewing was the first professor of clinical pathology at the school, and for a while was the only full-time professor.
  A branch of the school operated in Stimson Hall on the main campus. The two-year Ithaca course paralleled the first two years of the New York school. It closed in 1938 due to declining enrollment.
  Weill Cornell became affiliated with New York Hospital, now NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital, in 1913. The institutions opened a joint campus in Yorkville in 1932.
  In 1927, William Payne Whitney's $27 million donation led to the building of the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic, which became the name for Cornell's large psychiatric effort. Its Training School for Nurses became affiliated with the university in 1942, operating as the Cornell Nursing School until it closed in 1979.
  In 1998, New York Hospital merged with Presbyterian Hospital, the affiliate hospital of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. The combined institution operates today as NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital. Despite the clinical alliance, the faculty and instructional functions of the Cornell and Columbia units remain largely distinct and independent. Each hospital in the NewYork–Presbyterian Healthcare System is affiliated with one of the two colleges.
  Originally called Cornell University Medical College, the school was renamed the Weill Medical College of Cornell University after receiving a substantial endowment from then-Citigroup Chairman Sanford I. Weill in 1998. In 2015, the school renamed itself Weill Cornell Medicine to better reflect its mission.
  On September 16, 2019,  Dr. Augustine M.K. Choi announced Weill Cornell Medicine would make the cost of attendance free for all students who qualify for financial aid, made possible by a $160 million gift from The Starr Foundation, directed by Weill Cornell Medicine Overseer Maurice R. Greenberg, in partnership with gifts from Joan and Board of Overseers Chairman Emeritus Sanford I. Weill.
caption: Weill Medical Center from Rockefeller University
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