Do med schools have a target class size?

[k12123]

I'm a bit nervous because i looked around and the average class size would be around 160-200. Does that mean that they only accept that many students every year or do they accept as many students they think would be a good medical student?

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[RogueUnicorn]

I'm a bit nervous because i looked around and the average class size would be around 160-200. Does that mean that they only accept that many students every year or do they accept as many students they think would be a good medical student?

yes. it totally makes sense that sometimes they'll arbitrarily expand the class size for you because you are a special and unique snowflake.

 

[jc235693]

Class sizes at Med Schools do not change much, it takes a lot of planning and resources to train med students so a school can't simply take an extra 10 students because they are "qualified."

That being said schools have to accept many more people than they have seats since many people get multiple acceptances and can only go to one school. Obviously the competitiveness of the individual school will determine how many acceptances over their target class size they will offer.

 

[NickNaylor]

Nah, they just accept numbers randomly. If only one person is qualified, they accept one person. If 1000 are qualified, they accept 1000.

 

[FloridaMedicine]

yes. it totally makes sense that sometimes they'll arbitrarily expand the class size for you because you are a special and unique snowflake.

Nah, they just accept numbers randomly. If only one person is qualified, they accept one person. If 1000 are qualified, they accept 1000.

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[LizzyM]

Schools have some historical basis for knowing what proportion of their offers will be accepted (the proportion is called "the yield"). Schools that compete for the top students know that their yield will be lower because the applicants they make offers to will have many choices. So a school with 150 seats to fill may make 450 offers to fill those seats. A very popular and inexpensive state school may make far fewer offers because it enjoys a high yield as student choose on price.

If the offers made don't yield enough accepted offers to fill the class, then applicants are called from the waitlist. If too many offers are accepted (it happens rarely) the school may make very generous offers to get accepted students to defer their admission a year (like airlines that overbook and ask for volunteers to take a later flight in exchange for voucher).

 

[k12123]

Schools have some historical basis for knowing what proportion of their offers will be accepted (the proportion is called "the yield"). Schools that compete for the top students know that their yield will be lower because the applicants they make offers to will have many choices. So a school with 150 seats to fill may make 450 offers to fill those seats. A very popular and inexpensive state school may make far fewer offers because it enjoys a high yield as student choose on price.

If the offers made don't yield enough accepted offers to fill the class, then applicants are called from the waitlist. If too many offers are accepted (it happens rarely) the school may make very generous offers to get accepted students to defer their admission a year (like airlines that overbook and ask for volunteers to take a later flight in exchange for voucher).

Oh okay, that's very helpful, thank you.

 

[DoctwoB]

Everything in a school is designed around a given class size. Its not just about having one more person in a lecture hall.

Number of anatomy cadavers/available bays for cadavers, physical size of the lecture halls, number of available faculty advisers/small group leaders, availability of financial aid, number of rotation spots at affiliated hospitals, etc.

These things don't just appear out of thin air, it takes a lot of work and planning to make all these things happen.

 

[Anonymous01]

If too many offers are accepted (it happens rarely) the school may make very generous offers to get accepted students to defer their admission a year (like airlines that overbook and ask for volunteers to take a later flight in exchange for voucher).

What kind of offers? Are we talking along the lines of a free medical education, a free year of medical education, or something completely unrelated to money? I realize that all schools probably differ on this, but I'm just looking for something more concrete out of curiosity...

 

[45408]

What kind of offers? Are we talking along the lines of a free medical education, a free year of medical education, or something completely unrelated to money? I realize that all schools probably differ on this, but I'm just looking for something more concrete out of curiosity...

More like a discount on one year of med school. Or they might just say "Hey, anyone want to defer? No questions asked!" I'm sure a number of people would do that too.

 

[WingedOx]

What kind of offers? Are we talking along the lines of a free medical education, a free year of medical education, or something completely unrelated to money? I realize that all schools probably differ on this, but I'm just looking for something more concrete out of curiosity...

one school that I was accepted to (that shall remain nameless) sent us a letter offering to give free tuition for the first year to anyone who deferred a year.

 

[StudyShy]

one school that I was accepted to (that shall remain nameless) sent us a letter offering to give free tuition for the first year to anyone who deferred a year.

Wow! 🙂

 

[LizzyM]

one school that I was accepted to (that shall remain nameless) sent us a letter offering to give free tuition for the first year to anyone who deferred a year.

This is what I've heard, too. It is a Dean's nightmare and happens very, very rarely....

 

[OrangeandMaroon]

What kind of offers? Are we talking along the lines of a free medical education, a free year of medical education, or something completely unrelated to money? I realize that all schools probably differ on this, but I'm just looking for something more concrete out of curiosity...

This happened at a school last year. I don't know all the details but it was money ($10,000 scholarship per year for four years) or the chance to do a masters program.

 

[wanderer]

This is what I've heard, too. It is a Dean's nightmare and happens very, very rarely....

It happened last year at a highly competitive school, and this year it became tangibly more difficult to get an acceptance since the class size was effectively ~15% smaller.

 

[rhesuspieces]

On the flip side, I know of one school in particular that had to start pulling from the reject pile to fill up its class of '13. 😱

But as DoctwoB said, class sizes are usually limited by the physical size of the institution. Sometimes the MS1 lecture hall literally has only 130 seats.

 

[WingedOx]

This is what I've heard, too. It is a Dean's nightmare and happens very, very rarely....

I noticed that the posted average MCAT of said school went up 2 points 2 years later..

 

[PrettyFishy]

What kind of offers? Are we talking along the lines of a free medical education, a free year of medical education, or something completely unrelated to money? I realize that all schools probably differ on this, but I'm just looking for something more concrete out of curiosity...

A certain hurricane-beaten school on the gulf coast offered tuition for all 4 years for people who deffered to enter in 2011 instead of 2010.

 

[Ursa]

one school that I was accepted to (that shall remain nameless) sent us a letter offering to give free tuition for the first year to anyone who deferred a year.

Would this nameless school be UTMB?

Edit: Nevermind, UTMB gave free tuition for all four years because they accepted so many people.

 

[mvenus929]

This happened at a school last year. I don't know all the details but it was money ($10,000 scholarship per year for four years) or the chance to do a masters program.

It wasn't 'or a chance to do a masters program'... it was 'we'll give you 10K per year, and freeze tuition rates if you defer or do your MPH first year instead of fifth year. That was only after they said 'if you want to defer, go ahead... we don't care why'.

One person worked it out and said the scholarship essentially amounted to a free MPH if you already wanted to go that route.

 

[Overmjnd]

I doubt a cost reduction of 1 year tuition would be worth the long term earning potential you'd lose by delaying your education by a year when your making $300K.

 

[schrizto]

one school that I was accepted to (that shall remain nameless) sent us a letter offering to give free tuition for the first year to anyone who deferred a year.

This happened at a school last year. I don't know all the details but it was money ($10,000 scholarship per year for four years) or the chance to do a masters program.

A certain hurricane-beaten school on the gulf coast offered tuition for all 4 years for people who deffered to enter in 2011 instead of 2010.

Does a medical school really have to be that generous to get people to defer a year? How many in an incoming year end up taking the offer?

 

[mvenus929]

I doubt a cost reduction of 1 year tuition would be worth the long term earning potential you'd lose by delaying your education by a year when your making $300K.

Which is why most people don't end up taking up the offer. But for someone who's burnt out and wants to take a year off anyway, it can be a pretty sweet deal.

Does a medical school really have to be that generous to get people to defer a year? How many in an incoming year end up taking the offer?

So, when a med school overbooks a class, two things happen; one, people will end up getting pulled off the waitlist at schools they like more and will drop anyway, and two, people will be asked to defer. Some will defer and for one reason or another, won't end up coming back. But most of the people accepted who keep their spot after May 15th are pretty determined to go there and don't want to give up the opportunity cost.

It obviously varies based on what, exactly, is being offered (a school offering full tuition for 4 years may have a better offer than a school only offering $40K), but they only keep it available long enough to get the class size down to what they want.