Medical Colleges

Author’s Note

During the 19th-century, Louisville had, at one point, as many as ten (eleven in some reports) medical colleges. Some were affiliated with universities while others were not. Before Abraham Flexner released his report on the status of medical colleges in the United States, the minimum requirements to matriculate into or graduate from a medical college were typically that–bare-minimum. Additionally, the city of Louisville had taken a strong stance in competition with the city of Philadelphia to be home to the country’s most medical colleges. This, of course, is no competition for any institution of higher education to compete in. Eventually, time and investigations resulted in the merger of most of Kentucky’s medical colleges. The focus was placed on superior academic training, quality, rather than quantity.