Increase in application #'s from previous years?

[phonyreal98]

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Word on the street in pre-allo forums is that there's a 20% increase in applications between last year and this year (compared to this point in the 2011 cycle)...I wonder if anybody knows if there's a similar increase in applications to MD/PhD programs?

 

[Fencer]

Word on the street in pre-allo forums is that there's a 20% increase in applications between last year and this year (compared to this point in the 2011 cycle)...I wonder if anybody knows if there's a similar increase in applications to MD/PhD programs?

As usual, the rumor mill amplifies small differences to fairly large changes. The AMCAS data do not reflect increases in that "reported" amount for total MD applications. Compared to last year, about 6.5% increase in total number started (but less than 3.3% vs 2011) and 13.4% submitted. These numbers vary from week to week. Applicants have been more efficient in putting together their applications but total numbers are going up slowly in parallel to the increase number of total available MD matriculation slots.

For MD/PhD, we will have to wait until end of the season, but here are the number of applicants for past few years:

Year - Applicants - Acceptees - Matriculants
2009 .... 1703 ............ 816 ............... 601
2010 .... 1779 ............ 831 ............... 611
2011 .... 1813 ............ 856 ............... 633

You can argue that the increased number of acceptees and matriculants offsets the increase number of applicants.