Ceremonies and Events

Rites of Passage Heading link

The Office of Student Affairs organizes these ceremonies and events each year:

White Coat Ceremony

The annual White Coat Ceremony is a tradition that was established by the Gold Foundation in 1993. The ceremony welcomes new students into study for the profession of medicine with special emphasis on humanism and the compassionate care of the patient. In addition to receiving their white coat, which they will wear in clinical settings, students take an oath committing themselves to a high level of humanistic care.

Match Day

Each year in March, fourth year students at UICOMP and across the country learn where they will begin their careers as physicians and complete their next level of training. Residency program length varies between three and seven years, depending on the specialty in which they will practice.

Convocation

Each year in May, the Peoria campus celebrates a convocation recognizing the graduating class. The graduates are individually announced and selected faculty don the doctoral hood on each student as they come up on the stage in this traditional rite of passage. The class chooses a faculty member to provide the main convocation address as well as a peer from among themselves, who sends off the class as the final speaker in the ceremony.

Class of 2025 Convocation will be Saturday, May 10, 2025 at the Peoria Civic Center. Ceremony begins at 10am.