Is Medical Admissions Need-Blind?

[riverrunner]

Full disclosure: I'm a founder of a CBO that works with highly academically talented high school students. Many of them talk about becoming doctors. As we work to provide accurate advice to these students, I find the following to be true:

• Undergrad GPA and MCAT matter the most
  
• Research, shadowing, recommendations from professors and others, and volunteering matter a lot
• Name (and selectivity) of undergrad university matters little if at all

These same students are often admitted to (and tempted to attend) highly selective private or out-of-state universities. These schools are often expensive, and for most students, attending one means taking on debt. Students often consider maximizing their federal student loans to the tune of $28,000, and then attempt to get co-signed private loans. And their parents borrow heavily to fill the gap between merit and need-based aid.

I advise students who are pretty sure they want to go to medical school to get the cheapest undergraduate degree they can (if they will need loans) so that they can save their borrowing capacity for medical school. I tell high school students that owing less money for undergrad will result in less overall stress, and possibly more freedom of choice in selecting a specialty after medical school. I wonder if medical schools support and maybe even reward this choice to be fiscally conservative, as they consider applicants.

The cost of medical school (like undergrad) has exploded in the last 30 years. The debt incurred by physicians-in-training is enormous, and certainly results in stress, as evidence on the Financial Aid thread on this forum.

So here are my questions:
As part of the admission-to-medical school process, do you on the medical school side of the table ever consider the factor of ability to pay? Is admissions need-blind and debt-blind? And to be very direct, do you ever choose not to admit someone because you worry about their present and future financial position?

I have to wonder if this conversation should be part of the pre-admission process. Is there a rising commitment to transparency about the stresses and limited choices a person with high debt coming in to medical school will face?

If this is discussed somewhere else on this forum, please point me in the right direction! Thank you.

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[gyngyn]

Admission is entirely need blind.

 

[Goro]

100% need blind

 

[Catalystik]

do you ever choose not to admit someone because you worry about their present and future financial position?

Over the years, several med schools have been reported on SDN to make acceptances contingent on passing a credit check. I recall that MCW, Duke, and Georgetown were among them.

 

[libertyyne]

people have been unable to matriculate because they were unable to secure the loans necessary.