Why University of Illinois College of Medicine GPPA Medical Scholars Program?
Our students say that the GPPA Medical Scholars Program supports their passions beyond their coursework. The University has community partnerships and programs to support students’ academic, research, and extra-curricular goals. The success of our graduates also influenced their decision to choose GPPA Medical Scholars Program. In addition, they cite four distinctive attributes that set us apart from other BA/BS-MD program:
Location
Chicago is more than a line in our address. Everyday life at University of Illinois College of 
Medicine GPPA Medical Scholars Program is enriched by the city that surrounds us.
The College of Medicine campus is located only two miles from the city’s downtown area, which offers restaurants of every style, cutting edge music, concerts and events at Millennium Park on Chicago’s lakefront, State Street and Michigan Avenue shopping, esteemed art and science museums and so much more. Our location provides students a direct connection to the medical district and easy access to everything else going on in a world-class city, including close proximity to various unique neighborhoods, such as Little Italy and Pilsen that offer a distinguished character to urban living.
One of the unique aspects of the GPPA Medical Scholars Program is its integral connection to the College of Medicine in Chicago which serves a wide-range of diverse and under-served patients in the University Medical District, specifically at the University of Illinois Hospital and partnering clinics across the city. This offers both intellectual and social advantages to students who spend their college years at the center of the University.
Convenient transportation makes it easy for students to become part of this friendly city life, with a perfect combination of big city opportunity and small neighborhood quality of life.
Structure
Our program falls under the umbrella of the College of Medicine. This relationship fully grounds our 
teaching in the sciences and medicine, meaning that as future physicians, you will be able to base treatments on a more basic understanding of any given disease, translating it from bench to bedside. Recognized as a leading medical school, the University of Illinois College of Medicine leads groundbreaking research that includes a project to develop a prostate cancer vaccine, an initiative to discover the neurophysiological basis of brain disorders, and an effort to transplant islet cells to cure diabetes. Furthermore, the college recently received a $7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for a study of the mechanisms of infertility. This past year alone, the college received $146,418,792 in sponsored research funding. We strive to create an open, inquisitive, and welcoming learning environment.
Most outstanding is the opportunity for interdisciplinary work— from business, management, marketing, humanities, biological and biomedical sciences, engineering, and psychology — to name just some — provide a rich array of opportunities for our students.
Size
The small size of our student body – 35 on average per class – will allow you to establish life-long relationships that will provide you with a network of mentoring and support. You will be known by your classmates and your GPPA faculty, and you will join a vast renowned alumni family. The large scale of the University of Illinois means you have so many more resources including a large selection of major, course, and extra-curricular offerings. Being part of the University of Illinois College of Medicine, the GPPA Medical Scholars Program partakes in its many resources as well.
Community
The small size of our student body contributes to a collaborative and tight-knit student body. Our students become a GPPA Medical Scholars Program family and come in every variety, bringing diverse intellectual and social contributions. Together, they form the GPPA Medicine community, which is filled with alumni and renowned faculty, leaders who willingly share their gifts with one another.