what do schools mean when they say they look for students interested in primary care

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ie Florida State, Mercer and the like. is it just because they are state schools with that express mission, or are they just unable to recruit "better" students

 

[Nutmeg1621]

ie Florida State, Mercer and the like. is it just because they are state schools with that express mission, or are they just unable to recruit "better" students

I think it has something to do with how schools are rated or their focus area?...

If you look up US News ratings, the schools are rated from 1-100 on two things.

One list on research and then there is another rating list on schools with the best primary care.

So maybe those schools don't focus as much on research.

Maybe someone else can explain it better, and maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.

 

[DrBowtie]

It's just their mission. You can still easily specialize from these schools.

 

[Oculus Sinistra]

ie Florida State, Mercer and the like. is it just because they are state schools with that express mission, or are they just unable to recruit "better" students

As one professor from HMS put it, primary care docs are the "basic unit of health care." So obviously schools/states want to expand the numbers.

I know with Florida State ... their goal is to create more community and primary care physicians specifically for Florida because Florida is projected to feel tsunamis in the looming physician shortage (since there are sooo many older people here). As such, it may be harder to secure away rotations there.

 

[Dr.Andrews]

I think primary care schools tend to want to accept people from rural and underserviced areas and try to focus on training family doctors, er docs and other such things.

 

[DropkickMurphy]

I think primary care schools tend to want to accept people from rural and underserviced areas and try to focus on training family doctors, er docs and other such things.

To elaborate a little, the idea of accepting people from these areas is that we (speaking as someone who grew up in a town of less than 200 (yes, two hundred)) will go back and serve in the areas we are from. Personally I wouldn't practice anywhere within 80 miles of where I grew up and I know a lot of my fellow premeds feel the same way about this area. They are willing to claim they want to do primary care in their hometowns to get in, but most want to specialize and run screaming from this economic and social blackhole.

 

[lilnoelle]

To elaborate a little, the idea of accepting people from these areas is that we (speaking as someone who grew up in a town of less than 200 (yes, two hundred)) will go back and serve in the areas we are from. Personally I wouldn't practice anywhere within 80 miles of where I grew up and I know a lot of my fellow premeds feel the same way about this area. They are willing to claim they want to do primary care in their hometowns to get in, but most want to specialize and run screaming from this economic and social blackhole.

Not all of us though. There are times when I am tempted to go specialize, but most of the time, my heart is back at the farm. I fully plan to do primary care in a rural area. I wish I could go straight back to my home town, actually, but am going to stay in a different state for at least four years for loan repayment.
(I have lived in a relatively large city for the last 7 years, so its not like the farm is all I have known)

 

[Fusion]

ie Florida State, Mercer and the like. is it just because they are state schools with that express mission, or are they just unable to recruit "better" students

Just about any allopathic medical school in this country could have an avg matriculated student GPA/MCAT in the 3.7+/30+ range if their respective admissions committees so desired. Schools that emphasize primary care are not unable to recruit high caliber students. It's just that different schools look for different qualities in applicants. Some med schools place a very high emphasis on numbers. Other schools are not as concerned with stats as long as they are convinced that the applicant has the study skills and work ethic to successfully complete the curriculum. Such medical schools pay more attention to how well an applicant would fit in at the school and what he/she could contribute to the school and community as a medical student. This is not to say that highly ranked medical schools do not value these things, just that it is often less of a priority than it is at other institutions.

 

[paco4488]

I actually think that a lot of U.S. medical schools favor people that want to go in to primary care. With the way that the society is set up, there is been a drastic decrease in the number of primary care physicians. There is more money and usually more prestige in the specialized areas, so that is where most doctors end up going. I believe that primary care physicians have dropped below 40% in the U.S. as compared to around 70% in Canada.

 

[crazy_cavalier]

ie Florida State, Mercer and the like. is it just because they are state schools with that express mission, or are they just unable to recruit "better" students

It means they want you to have a high GPA and MCAT. Don't worry about what type of medicine you're going to go into, you'll figure that out later. Just go get A's by taking the easiest classes you can. Honestly.

 

[MossPoh]

So you think Florida State would give me extra consideration since my official place of residence is in a ridiculously small town about an hour away from Tally? lol

 

[LifetimeDoc]

So you think Florida State would give me extra consideration since my official place of residence is in a ridiculously small town about an hour away from Tally? lol

Well, in a way yes. FSU only accepts Florida residents, and rejects all out of state/out of country applications.

 

[GAdoc]

So you think Florida State would give me extra consideration since my official place of residence is in a ridiculously small town about an hour away from Tally? lol

Probably...I can't speak for FSU, but I can speak for Mercer. First of all, Mercer is private. Remember, there are MANY obstacles in setting up a new allopathic medical school in this country. Mercer is a relatively new school (set up in early 80s). They had a lot of help from the state goverment based on the condition that they EXCLUSIVELY accept Georgia residents and that they meet the growing need for rural, primary care physicians. They structured their curriculum (100% problem based), their class size (60), and the type of people they accept, around the needs of rural Georgia. Their primary teaching hospital (Medical Center of Central Georgia) offers affiliated residency programs in Internal Medicine, Family Practice, Pediatrics, Ob/Gyn, and General Surgery (all considered primary care by the school).

Whereas Morehouse (another Ga school of similar size) was chartered to serve the inner-city underserved, Mercer was chartered to serve the rural underserved.

Medical College of Georgia has geared itself in recent years towards meeting the needs of rural Georgia through primary care. Of course, they are Georgia's only public school and 2/3 the cost of tuition is picked up by the state legislature. Consequently, the state mandates the type of applicants MCG accepts. The demand is growing so much that this year, the class size was bumped up from 180 to 190.

Now don't go thinking a school like Mercer (or any other school with a similar mission) is purely altruistic in the type of people it accepts. Technically you can match into anything for residency, but when your curriculum, clinical clerkships, and years of prior matches are geared to primary care, you're probably a little more at a disadvantage if you want to go into ortho. or neurosurgery. Mercer is still looking for the cream of the crop, its just that due to their unique mission, they end up with something less (often Medical College of Georgia rejects).

From what I heard two years ago, about 80 people apply to Mercer Early Decision. Of those, about 20 were accepted. But they are probably in the 3.5 GPA, 27 MCAT range, because those with higher stats would probably pay 1/3 the tuition to do early decision at MCG. The remaining 40 slots in the class go to those with great stats who didn't apply early decision. Averages may be 3.7 and 31+ MCAT. Unfortunately for Mercer, many of these students see Mercer as a back up. Of course, once wait list time comes around, MANY students are pulled off the list. These students are back down around the 3.5, 27 MCAT range. So the class profile ends up being somewhere around 3.6 and 28 MCAT.

Sorry for all the info. I could write a book on the politics of getting into medical school, so I really enjoyed the post. By the way, the new Dean of Admission at FSU was the dean at Mercer until last year.

 

[Law2Doc]

It means they want you to have a high GPA and MCAT. Don't worry about what type of medicine you're going to go into, you'll figure that out later.

Actually as others on the thread have suggested, most state schools have an explicit mission to generate more physicians who will do primary care and work with the underserved populations in that state. Some even go so far as to give you a big tuition break if you sign a contract agreeing to do such for a period of years. While you can go into any kind of specialty from a state school, you may get better consideration if you can provide evidence of a bona fide interest in working with an underserved population, either through your ECs, or your meager beginnings, etc. At such places a strong background in research, or a particular high end competitive specialty might actually sometimes work against you.