Is the number of Pre-meds decreasing?

[BrownEMS]

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I went to orientation in a large state school and they had 3000 freshmen there in that orientation day (that university is like a city!) anyways, of the 3000 freshmen, about 30 were interested in pre-med/pre-vet/pre-dental/pre-optometry etc., They said that this was the first time they had such a low number of pre-meds.

Okay great. But nationwide, is the number of pre-meds or the number of medical school applications decreasing?

 

[Socrates25]

I went to orientation in a large state school and they had 3000 freshmen there in that orientation day (that university is like a city!) anyways, of the 3000 freshmen, about 30 were interested in pre-med/pre-vet/pre-dental/pre-optometry etc., They said that this was the first time they had such a low number of pre-meds.

Okay great. But nationwide, is the number of pre-meds or the number of medical school applications decreasing?

The total number of applicants has gone up in recent years, but its cyclical and when the economy improves you'll see a downward trend.

The long term trend is that the number of medical school spots is greatly outpacing the growth in applicants. In 15 years getting accepted to medical school will become routine. It wont be as bad as law school where everybody gets in somewhere, but the "mystique" of having to work hard to get in because of the competition wont be there anymore.

 

[davidbm95]

In 15 years getting accepted to medical school will become routine.

I beg to differ, medical school will never be a "routine" application process. There will always be high competition for medical school.

 

[mimelim]

I went to orientation in a large state school and they had 3000 freshmen there in that orientation day (that university is like a city!) anyways, of the 3000 freshmen, about 30 were interested in pre-med/pre-vet/pre-dental/pre-optometry etc., They said that this was the first time they had such a low number of pre-meds.

Okay great. But nationwide, is the number of pre-meds or the number of medical school applications decreasing?

lol when I started at wash U 8 years ago, there were 1500 students per class and over 700 were pre-med.

 

[Ironmandoc]

The total number of applicants has gone up in recent years, but its cyclical and when the economy improves you'll see a downward trend.

The long term trend is that the number of medical school spots is greatly outpacing the growth in applicants. In 15 years getting accepted to medical school will become routine. It wont be as bad as law school where everybody gets in somewhere, but the "mystique" of having to work hard to get in because of the competition wont be there anymore.

There are 45,000 applicants for 17,000 spots, so unless there are almost 30,000 new seats opening in the next 15 years you are dead wrong. That would be about 20 schools opening each year for 15 years...impossible.

 

[PreMedOrDead]

The applications, as said, are typically cyclical.

In the current case, I believe this past year had the largest number of people take the MCAT ever.

 

[WorldChanger36]

When I started UG everybody was pre med... When I finished Orgo 12 were left. Grand total of those 12 ... 7 got into medical school. The others are out there somewhere floating in the either hoping for something and I only know of one that is working to do something about increase their chances....

Take home from this if only 30 are interested in pre med there are another 270 you haven't met yet.