The 2016-17 academic year is underway at UConn Health, with the first-year students undergoing orientation this week.

Thursday, the UConn Schools of Medicine and Dental Medicine held a convocation for the 149 medical and dental students making up the newest incoming classes.

The convocation carries a dual theme of viewing medicine and dental medicine as vocations of service to others, and the need for physicians and dentists to maintain their interest and activity beyond the health care sciences to assure a sense of balance and perspective in their personal and professional lives. It is named in honor of Joseph M. Healy Jr., a member of the Department of Community Medicine and Health Care faculty from 1975 until his death in 1993. Healy used to chair the annual convocation ceremony, which he established in 1985.

This year’s alumni guest speaker was Dr. Ken Yanagisawa, who graduated from the UConn School of Medicine in 1988 and today practices otolaryngology in the New Haven area.

The UConn School of Dental Medicine’s incoming class has 49 students out of more than 1,400 applicants:

• 32 are Connecticut residents.
• 19 completed undergraduate degrees at UConn
• 7 have undergraduate degrees from other Connecticut schools.
• 25 are female, 24 are male.
• 10 are from demographic groups considered underrepresented in medicine.
• 3 are in the Combined Program in Dental Medicine.
• Average undergraduate overall GPA is 3.63.
• Average undergraduate BCPM GPA is 3.56 (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Math).
• DAT academic average is 21.57.
• DAT total science average is 21.69.

The new first-year class at the UConn School of Medicine consists of 100 students out of more than 3,000 applicants:

• 80 are Connecticut residents.
• 35 completed undergraduate degrees at UConn.
• 52 are female, 48 are male.
• 20 are from demographic groups considered underrepresented in medicine.
• 5 are in the M.D./Ph.D. program.
• Average undergraduate overall GPA is 3.85.
• Average undergraduate BCPM GPA is 3.71 (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Math).
• Average old MCAT total score is 31.5 (83^rd percentile).
• Average new MCAT score is 509.3 (79^th percentile).

It’s the first time the UConn School of Medicine incoming class size has reached 100 students.