Age discrimination

[Pagan FutureDoc]

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My wife is a 31 year old second year surgical resident....”age” hasn’t effected her in the slightest. And she will have a nice long career as a general surgeon.

31 is by no means old but, are does impact some people’s choice of residency. I would be 50 or so if I completed a surgical residency. And while I have no doubt I could do it, it would cut down on the number of years I feel I could practice at the top of my game..so, for me personally I’m looking into less physically strenuous specialties

 

[Redpancreas]

Myself and pretty much everyone I’ve known are completely different now (at age 22-23) then we were several years ago (17-18).

It’s really a precautionary measure because most people completely change during those years as they adjust to being real world adults. So schools prefer to take the safe road and have young applicants wait a bit.

You’re coming from a good place and I know people say that, but I personally don’t see why we can’t start medical school at 18. If we excelled in middle school in order (skipped a grade) to excel in high school in order to gain enough advanced credit to graduate in 2 years, that student shouldn’t be told they aren’t mature/focused enough to handle medical school.

 

[Isoval]

Not sure if anyone said anything about this already, skipped most of the comments:

MD PHDs get this pass all the time. The median age of matriculation is 24 on the MD side but is likely to be higher on the DO side. But who knows if older students are getting discriminated against. Havent seen any proof one way or the other.

DO average in 2016 was 24, median was 23.

 

[libertyyne]

Not sure if anyone said anything about this already, skipped most of the comments:



DO average in 2016 was 24, median was 23.

Thanks, that was an interesting trend. Their average went from 25-24 seems like they are going younger.



~22% of the class is above 26
~15% of the MD class is above 26

 

[LoveBeingHuman:)]

You’re coming from a good place and I know people say that, but I personally don’t see why we can’t start medical school at 18. If we excelled in middle school in order (skipped a grade) to excel in high school in order to gain enough advanced credit to graduate in 2 years, that student shouldn’t be told they aren’t mature/focused enough to handle medical school.

I wouldn't say those students aren't "mature" enough, it's just that many things change when you go into your early 20's. There are many 18 year old pre-meds who drop out of being pre med in the first couple years of college, MANY of whom have attained very high GPA's during tough class-loads. The reason they dropped out is that they got more life experience and decided to go another direction.

The matter of the fact is that you get more experience and life just changes a lot when you go from being 18 to 23. It's not that you're arbitrarily not "mature" enough, it's that you will get more mature when you go from 18 to 22/23 and maybe you'll want to do something different.

 

[libertyyne]

You’re coming from a good place and I know people say that, but I personally don’t see why we can’t start medical school at 18. If we excelled in middle school in order (skipped a grade) to excel in high school in order to gain enough advanced credit to graduate in 2 years, that student shouldn’t be told they aren’t mature/focused enough to handle medical school.

direct pathways to medical school have some of the highest attrition rates.

 

[Raryn]

You’re coming from a good place and I know people say that, but I personally don’t see why we can’t start medical school at 18. If we excelled in middle school in order (skipped a grade) to excel in high school in order to gain enough advanced credit to graduate in 2 years, that student shouldn’t be told they aren’t mature/focused enough to handle medical school.

Trust me, people can and do. It's just significantly harder to get in for someone younger than typical.

Oh, and while discrimination against people for being too old is illegal, the same is not true for discrimination against people for being too young.

Is it fair? No. Is there reasoning for why it may be the case? Yes.