The "Middlesex College of Medicine and Surgery" was founded in 1914 by John Hall Smith and originally located in East Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The AMA said this was due to insufficient funds, faculty, and facilities, but some at the university believed that antisemitism played a role.

Middlesex, alone among medical schools, selected its students on the basis of merit, and refused to establish any racial quotas.

[4]In 1944, a Massachusetts law making doctor's licensing dependent on holding an MD from an AMA-accredited medical school, and financial problems caused by World War II, made the situation of Middlesex University untenable.

In 1947, Brandeis, feeling that the financial burden of operating the medical school was too great and closed its doors.