MD White Coat Ceremony

The White Coat Ceremony is Medical School Tradition

Tufts University School of Medicine held its first White Coat Ceremony in the fall of 1997. It is now considered a rite of passage for each entering class.

This year’s White Coat Ceremony will be held on Saturday, August 16, 2025. The ceremony will begin at 10:30AM at the Cutler Majestic Theater located at 219 Tremont Street, Boston, and will conclude at approximately 12:00PM. The goal of this ceremony is to welcome students of the Class of 2028 into the Tufts community and acknowledge the start of their journey toward becoming a doctor. The program is centered around the incoming students and their new faculty coaches, but we know that students may want to include family members/friends. To facilitate that, we are having the ceremony live-streamed (and recorded) for remote viewing.

Students also have the option of inviting a limited number of guests to attend the ceremony in person, if they wish. We are only providing a maximum of 4 tickets per students, and in order to be equitable to all students, we will not be re-distributing unused tickets. (Please be sure to make guests aware that the ceremony is brief and no additional programming is scheduled for that weekend.) Additional details will be sent directly to the M28 class by email.

History

The Arnold P. Gold Foundation established the White Coat Ceremony in 1993 at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University. Tufts University School of Medicine held its first White Coat Ceremony in the fall of 1997. At this ceremony each student is physically given his or her first white coat in the medical community by deans and faculty of the medical school who believes in the students' ability to carry on the noble tradition of doctoring. The Humanism in Medicine pins affixed to the White Coats are provided as a gift from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation.