More Acceptance "News"

[tryingagain]

Ok, I had previously posted a topic on if it was easier to get into medical schools this year because the number of applicants are down.

My mother works at the VA hospital where she often runs into physicians from the University of Cincinnati, which is next door. Naturally she and a doctor from UC's admissions committee started a discussion on my application to med school in general.

He stated to her that this year is perhaps the best year in the past 30 years to apply to medical school. Many of his colleagues(sp?) from other schools he had spoken to had agreed with him. He stated that this year and last year most of the medical programs around the country took about 50% of the applicants that applied. Obviously he means the middle to low tier schools.

Now I do not know if he is misinformed or has been smoking the peace pipe, but I think that's pretty frickin interesting.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Adcadet]

woohoo! Good news. Even if it doesn't chance the fact that many of us will get accepted regardless, it might mean that we'll get more acceptances (thus, we'll have choices...always nice) and might get into some better schools (always nice).

 

[Diogenes]

Originally posted by tryingagain
He stated to her that this year is perhaps the best year in the past 30 years to apply to medical school. Many of his colleagues(sp?) from other schools he had spoken to had agreed with him. He stated that this year and last year most of the medical programs around the country took about 50% of the applicants that applied. Obviously he means the middle to low tier schools.

Now I do not know if he is misinformed or has been smoking the peace pipe, but I think that's pretty frickin interesting.

I think he is referring to the overall number of applicants and the overall number of matriculants, NOT the acceptance rate at any particular school. About 16000 people matriculate each year and that number is pretty constant. The total number of applicants varies from year to year. For the last 10 years the high is in the mid 40,000s, and the low is the low 30,000s. Thus, this year about 50% of the total number of applicants actually end up enrolling somewhere. I expect the overall number of applicants to rise again (as it tends to do when the economy is bad, though delayed due to the time it takes to complete pre-med requirements).

 

[dpy]

does anyone find it slightly disturbing that the number of applicants go up when the economy is bad? what does it say about the motives of the people who apply? that they're only applying because of a recession? i'd like to think that people want to be doctors because of their passion in medicine, but i know that's also very idealistic and not true for a lot of people.

anyway, glad to know that this might be an "easier" year to apply in.

 

[Spiderman [RNA Ladder 2003]]

do you mean that 2003 is the easiest year to apply? we will see that....

 

[Diogenes]

Originally posted by dpy
does anyone find it slightly disturbing that the number of applicants go up when the economy is bad? what does it say about the motives of the people who apply? that they're only applying because of a recession? i'd like to think that people want to be doctors because of their passion in medicine, but i know that's also very idealistic and not true for a lot of people.

anyway, glad to know that this might be an "easier" year to apply in.

Certainly some people go into medicine for the money -- maybe not just the amount of money but the job security that seems to exist -- people will always need doctors. But I think there is a different way of looking at it. When the economy is really good, people that might otherwise choose medicine get lured away into other professions.

 

[Diogenes]

Originally posted by Spiderman [RNA Ladder 2003]
do you mean that 2003 is the easiest year to apply? we will see that....

"easiest" does not, in this context, mean lowest standards. The overall GPA and MCAT may still be very high, but the overall proportion of accepted/applied may be higher than other years.

 

[Random Access]

Originally posted by Diogenes
Certainly some people go into medicine for the money -- maybe not just the amount of money but the job security that seems to exist -- people will always need doctors. But I think there is a different way of looking at it. When the economy is really good, people that might otherwise choose medicine get lured away into other professions.

Same thing for business school and law school. Tons of laid off people applied to both of those last year (and conceivably this year). And lots of graduating seniors applied to law school too, instead of jobs. I mean, it's not like too many people are getting high paying dot-com jobs these days. When people can't get jobs, there's no money factor to lure people away from going back to school.


-RA

 

[Random Access]

In any case...the number of med school applicants goes down most years, right? So every year is just about the best year...



-RA

 

[Tweetie_bird]

Originally posted by Random Access
In any case...the number of med school applicants goes down most years, right?

so what did we decide was the answer to this one?

 

[mpp]

Recently (the past 5 years) it has gone down every year. Prior to the at it was going up every year. Here are the data of the number of applicants and the entering year.

1992 37,402
1993 42,806
1994 45,360
1995 46,586
1996 46,965
1997 43,016
1998 40,996
1999 38,443
2000 37,089
2001 34,859

The numbers for the 2002 entering class will be published next month.

 

[Random Access]

Originally posted by mpp
Recently (the past 5 years) it has gone down every year. Prior to the at it was going up every year. Here are the data of the number of applicants and the entering year.

1992 37,402
1993 42,806
1994 45,360
1995 46,586
1996 46,965
1997 43,016
1998 40,996
1999 38,443
2000 37,089
2001 34,859

The numbers for the 2002 entering class will be published next month.

I think someone was telling me that the number of applicants is way down compared to the 60s/70s numbers? Does anyone know if that's true?

-RA