Why so many applicants for 2006?

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Nebuloso said:
What's the deal with the increase in applicants for the 2006 cycle? I blame Grey's Anatomy. Any other ideas?
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How do you know how many applicants there are this year?
 
star22 said:
How do you know how many applicants there are this year?
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Every school that I've compared primary applications has increased: Temple (record #), Case (~10-15% increase), Tulane (10-15% increase), Maryland (~10% increase). Dunno if thats because there are more unique applicants or more people applying to more schools. If my 10% theory is right, then I guess this year we will have 40K applicants, which is mind-boggling.
 
Greeattttt.....Lets add a couple more thousand people to compete with! :laugh:
 
but some schools are also increasing enrollment. Wayne is planning to increase ~40 more spots.
 
happydays said:
but some schools are also increasing enrollment. Wayne is planning to increase ~40 more spots.
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:laugh: (i laugh at your forty)
 
Could it be the economy? Bad economy = more people wanting into professional schools...
 
but the economy has been consistently non-stellar for several years now.

there's an older thread on this one, from last year i think . . .
 
Nebuloso said:
What's the deal with the increase in applicants for the 2006 cycle? I blame Grey's Anatomy. Any other ideas?
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blame it on the rain
 
sanford_w/o_son said:
but the economy has been consistently non-stellar for several years now.

there's an older thread on this one, from last year i think . . .
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I think it has more to do with how the economy was 4-years ago when these premeds entered college. 4 years ago was the low point.
 
Thre is an old saying: when unemployment is high, graduating seniors apply to grad school because jobs are scarce and they are unlikely to get a job right out of college. This is less true for professional schools although I suspect that there is a similar situation when unemployment is low and high salaries are being offered for entry level workers; a pre-med or pre-law student might take a job for a year or two with a brokerage firm or a biotech start-up with the hope of making some big money before going on to professional school. When those jobs aren't there (even if the economy is otherwise good), then it seems to make sense to go straight to professional school.

There might be some effect on the poor job market (including bursting of the dot-com bubble, and the post 9/11 economic downturn) on non-trad applicants although I would think that most of those applicants will be admitted by Fall '06 or will move on with their lives.
 
LizzyM said:
Thre is an old saying: when unemployment is high, graduating seniors apply to grad school because jobs are scarce and they are unlikely to get a job right out of college. This is less true for professional schools although I suspect that there is a similar situation when unemployment is low and high salaries are being offered for entry level workers; a pre-med or pre-law student might take a job for a year or two with a brokerage firm or a biotech start-up with the hope of making some big money before going on to professional school. When those jobs aren't there (even if the economy is otherwise good), then it seems to make sense to go straight to professional school.

There might be some effect on the poor job market (including bursting of the dot-com bubble, and the post 9/11 economic downturn) on non-trad applicants although I would think that most of those applicants will be admitted by Fall '06 or will move on with their lives.
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That is actually not the case.

Because of pre-med requirements, there is typically a few year lag after a downturn in the economy and an increase in med school applications.

In contrast, law and business schools experience immediate fluctuations in applications because of the lack of any requirements.

Look at page 4 of the pdf, and this point becomes very obvious.

http://www.aamc.org/newsroom/pressrel/2005/applicants.pdf
 
I really really want to blame this on BUSH...
 
sanford_w/o_son said:
:laugh: (i laugh at your forty)
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that's a 25% increase!!! Plus, other schools are increasing enrollment, too.
 
Probably totally unrelated... but alot of the undergraduate schools saw record applications this year as well. Maybe there is something greater going on here?
 
Mixtli said:
If my 10% theory is right, then I guess this year we will have 40K applicants, which is mind-boggling.
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I applied to medical school in 1997, and then there were almost 50,000 applicants for fewer spots (but not by much). Very competitive back then.
 
astrife said:
Probably totally unrelated... but alot of the undergraduate schools saw record applications this year as well. Maybe there is something greater going on here?
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Fewer seniors want to die in Iraq/n.
 
Economy is down, Professional School Apps go up....
 
Nebuloso said:
What's the deal with the increase in applicants for the 2006 cycle? I blame Grey's Anatomy. Any other ideas?
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Its because of me. I keep on reapplying 🙂
 
happydays said:
that's a 25% increase!!! Plus, other schools are increasing enrollment, too.
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all the michigan schools are increasing enrollment over the next 1-2 years.... wayne is the only school that has the resources to increase so much, so fast. in fact, i thought i heard most schools around the country are being encouraged to increase number of spots (w/ in their capacity limits) due to the perceived future physician shortage.
 
fun8stuff said:
most schools around the country are being encouraged to increase number of spots (w/ in their capacity limits) due to the perceived future physician shortage.
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didn't the aamc president also say something about encouraging this to combat the huge increase in osteopathic schools and foreign graduates? i'm sure the caribbean graduates thousands of doctors a year... when most of us are in the thick of practice, i bet we'll have quite a few island doctor coworkers.
 
i did it because everyone else was doing it
 
Mixtli said:
Every school that I've compared primary applications has increased: Temple (record #), Case (~10-15% increase), Tulane (10-15% increase), Maryland (~10% increase). Dunno if thats because there are more unique applicants or more people applying to more schools. If my 10% theory is right, then I guess this year we will have 40K applicants, which is mind-boggling.
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yeah at these specific schools, but at many other schools, they are experiencing a decrease in applicants. overall, it will balance out.
 
Any economic influence would have occured a few years ago. I doubt there are many people who applied this year who hadn't been planning it for at least a couple years...unlike other professional/grad schools. I just hope the numbers stop going up :scared:
 
ever think the population has grown? Baby Boomers anyone? :idea:

Also with college admission standards increasing (competitiveness), naturally more people might be trying to apply.
 
LizzyM said:
Thre is an old saying: when unemployment is high, graduating seniors apply to grad school because jobs are scarce and they are unlikely to get a job right out of college. This is less true for professional schools although I suspect that there is a similar situation when unemployment is low and high salaries are being offered for entry level workers; a pre-med or pre-law student might take a job for a year or two with a brokerage firm or a biotech start-up with the hope of making some big money before going on to professional school. When those jobs aren't there (even if the economy is otherwise good), then it seems to make sense to go straight to professional school.

There might be some effect on the poor job market (including bursting of the dot-com bubble, and the post 9/11 economic downturn) on non-trad applicants although I would think that most of those applicants will be admitted by Fall '06 or will move on with their lives.



NoSoupforYou13 said:
That is actually not the case.

Because of pre-med requirements, there is typically a few year lag after a downturn in the economy and an increase in med school applications.

In contrast, law and business schools experience immediate fluctuations in applications because of the lack of any requirements.

Look at page 4 of the pdf, and this point becomes very obvious.

http://www.aamc.org/newsroom/pressrel/2005/applicants.pdf
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That was what I was saying. People who are pre-med will apply "on schedule" unless they are lured away with big $ for a short-term job opportunity (in a strong economy).

There are those who decide to go into medicine because of external events (dot-com bubble burst, 9/11, etc) and they will have a bit of a delay as they do post-bachs and that is exactly what you see in that chart, a rise beginning in the 2003 .... I've seen Personal Statements from non-traditionals over the past 2-3 seasons that make reference to 9/11 and the dot-com biz. If someone started a post-bach in Sept 02 after 9/11 then they would be ready to apply in June 04. I do think that after 2 cycles (ending in 2005), that reason for the bump will have played itself out.
 
Wait, 9/11 was a reason to go into medicine? Funny, I thought briefly about it when I decided to switch and for me it was a reason to avoid medicine.(I mean you're basically supporting the front line people in the local WoT, IE first responders. So if some attack happens and it involves anthrax or poison you might get it too even though you weren't right there. Also can't forget that if an attack happens in a big city you'd expect at least a few of us nurses/docs to go over and pitch in a hand.) Basically saying after 9/11 being a doc/nurse/EMT/firefighter/etc seems to have additional risks.
 
9/11 does not equal increase in # of doctors.

People use 9/11 to signal the downturn in the economy, which led to increase med school apps.
 
I dont know if anyone else has found this, but i know since I have been in middle school my class (kids graduating college in 2006) has always been academically strong. I found that this was true in high school and college too. I know that not everyone who applies to med school is graduating college this year, but there are a large number. I know when my pre med advisory board had to do recommendations, they had a tough time because so many people had outstanding grades and activites. So i was thinking that a large group of these driven people from all over have just been drawn to medicine this year. I'm sure there are many factors, but maybe there was something in the water in 1984/1983
 
When I applied in Texas (TMSDAS), my school advisor informed me that this would be a record year for applications.At the July 2005 mark in the process,Texas had already recieved 2000 more applicants than the previous year with four more months to go in the cycle. I think they ended up with 5000 more total applicants.This is a major reason why Texas is moving towards a new application process. Every school I applied to outside of Texas(27) was experiencing record years. Northwestern ,the school I got into told me that this year they had 7500 application for 171 spots (63 for their ungrads).The scary stat. is that off-shore school are like Ross are taking in 1500 applicants a year and that number is increasing.

One of reasons for the increase is ofcourse the economy, but another cause is the definitely the increase in television programs showing YOUNG doctors. Think about the fact that CSI has quadrupled entries to the industry since the show's inception.
 
It's me guys... sorry. It seems to happen every year I apply. Last cycle I applied for was 2000 and there were record numbers of applicants that year too. I'm sorry.
 
Nodelphi said:
It's me guys... sorry. It seems to happen every year I apply. Last cycle I applied for was 2000 and there were record numbers of applicants that year too. I'm sorry.
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I feel the same way. Thinking about it a bit more, it seems that every year the number of applicnats increase.
 
It's sadly possibly driven by TV. 😱 There was a huge rise in law school applications better than a decade ago shortly after the success of LA law which many journalists attributed to the societal pervasiveness of the show. There are more successful medicine shows on now than at any time in history -- Greys Anatomy, House, Scrubs, ER, Dr. 90210, Nip Tuck. Even the Bachelor was an ER doc and the winner of Beauty and the Geek was at Penn Med. Clearly TV bombardment of positive physician images is a factor in helping folks decide what they want to be when they grow up. 🙂
 
good post l2d...never thought of it that way

Law2Doc said:
It's sadly possibly driven by TV. 😱 There was a huge rise in law school applications better than a decade ago shortly after the success of LA law which many journalists attributed to the societal pervasiveness of the show. There are more successful medicine shows on now than at any time in history -- Greys Anatomy, House, Scrubs, ER, Dr. 90210, Nip Tuck. Even the Bachelor was an ER doc and the winner of Beauty and the Geek was at Penn Med. Clearly TV bombardment of positive physician images is a factor in helping folks decide what they want to be when they grow up. 🙂
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RunnerMD said:
I really wish people would stop listening to the tiresome dribble pouring out of the nightly news. If you actually look at the facts, the economy is doing well and the job market is looking good for college grads.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060329/BUSINESS02/603290423/1003/rss03
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Perhaps this issue is less about the economy and more about consumer confidence. The economy is strong largely because of corporate profits (Wow! Oil companies had record profits last year! Imagine that!). That economic strength isn't trickling down to people.
Maybe I should spend less time listening to the tiresome dribble pouring out of the nightly news and more time listening to the enlightened analysis provided by the Indianapolis Star.
 
jebus said:
Perhaps this issue is less about the economy and more about consumer confidence. The economy is strong largely because of corporate profits (Wow! Oil companies had record profits last year! Imagine that!). That economic strength isn't trickling down to people.
Maybe I should spend less time listening to the tiresome dribble pouring out of the nightly news and more time listening to the enlightened analysis provided by the Indianapolis Star.
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There are numerous articles showing the strength of the economy. Perhaps you'd like me to get an article from the NYTimes. Why don't you actually check out the MRC's evaluation of some of the more "reputable" publications in America?

Secondly, I know you're intelligent--you're applying to med school, but COME ON--you couldn't have come up with a better line than "oil companies had record profits." That's so predictable! Everything can be blamed on Halliburton, Kellogg, Brown & Root, etc....Stop repeating everything your liberal professors hammer into your head.
 
RunnerMD said:
There are numerous articles showing the strength of the economy.
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Here's an article from Friday, from Marketwatch, Profits surge to 40-year high. When will corporations spend some of their hoard? Yeah, the economy is strong - corporate profits are huge! My point is that consumer spending and confidence has slowed over the past few years, despite the ostensibly strong economy. According to this article, "While profits are up 21.3% in the past year, labor compensation is up just 5.5%. After adjusting for inflation, population growth and taxes, real disposable per capita incomes are up just 0.5% in the past year." What good is a strong economy if it doesn't serve the people? What impact might this have on medical school applications?
you! said:
Secondly, I know you're intelligent--you're applying to med school,
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I tell myself this all the time! "I'm applying to medical schoo! I'm smart! I did well on the MCAT! I'm smart!"
you again! said:
but COME ON
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ok, you convinced me.
yes said:
--you couldn't have come up with a better line than "oil companies had record profits." That's so predictable! Everything can be blamed on Halliburton, Kellogg, Brown & Root, etc....Stop repeating everything your liberal professors hammer into your head.
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Why are you turning this into a political discussion? What purpose does this serve? Oh, it gives you an outlet to complain about some alleged bias and feign superiority because you can see the lies in the media. If you gonna do this, at least be subtle. Your attack of the media and academia as liberal pawns is "so predictable". Let's keep the discussion germane to the original topic. Can you dig it? Are you hip to the jive?
 
Arizona is even starting another medical school campus in Phoenix for the next application cycle. Its has more to do with the AZ doctor shortage, but still, the point is that there are a ton of people willing to fill those spots (only 25 ppl the first year)
 
jebus said:
Yeah, the economy is strong - corporate profits are huge! My point is that consumer spending and confidence has slowed over the past few years, despite the ostensibly strong economy. According to this article, "While profits are up 21.3% in the past year, labor compensation is up just 5.5%. After adjusting for inflation, population growth and taxes, real disposable per capita incomes are up just 0.5% in the past year." What good is a strong economy if it doesn't serve the people? What impact might this have on medical school applications?
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From a Reuters article in USA Today

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/productivity/2005-12-06-productivity-q3_x.htm

The increase in productivity and drop in unit labor costs — A gauge of the cost of labor associated with any given unit of production — Were both larger than economists had expected. Economists had looked for productivity growth to be revised up to 4.5% from the originally reported 4.1% gain, with unit labor costs down 0.8%.

Productivity is a key factor that determines whether living standards are improving. Productivity gains allow companies to pay workers more from their increased production without having to increase the price of products they sell, which would fuel inflation.


jebus said:
Why are you turning this into a political discussion? What purpose does this serve? Oh, it gives you an outlet to complain about some alleged bias and feign superiority because you can see the lies in the media. If you gonna do this, at least be subtle. Your attack of the media and academia as liberal pawns is "so predictable". Let's keep the discussion germane to the original topic.
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Excuse me, if you will look at the original post that I made, I simply was pointing out that the economy is NOT bad. You were the one who brought up the argument that the evil "oil companies," were the main reason for the prospering economy. Hmm, what about the surge in small business owners, especially among minorities? What about the growth of Wal-Mart? Oh oops, that's another eeeeeevil corporation.

If anyone is trying to steer this thread off topic--its you!

jebus said:
Can you dig it? Are you hip to the jive?
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Sorry, I never got into the 1960s "lingo." It doesn't suprise me though that you are using it--you're still stuck in that 1960s/protest mentality.

Bottom Line: I am simply defending my point. I did not turn this into a political discussion. And I will drop the point at this time. Best of luck to you in the admissions process.
 
Two points:

First: In among the thousands of med school applicants I've read in the last 3 years I have seen several that stuck in my mind because the applicant was moved by the events of 9/11 and its aftermath to pursue a career in medicine. Now clearly, I see only a small subset of the 35,000+ applicants but I think that it is possible to extrapolate from this sample to say that some of the increase experienced in 2003, 2004, 2005 is a result of students choosing to do the pre-med requirements either as undergrads or as post-bacs and apply in those years after the events of 9/11. (And I'm talking about people such as a fellow who stood in the roadway and watched the plume of dust rise over the WTC and asked himself, "what am I doing with my life? am I using my talents to the betterment of society? maybe I'm called to something other than what I've been doing" -- or maybe he said, "Get me the hell off of Wall Street, what else can a smart guy like me do? Let me see about that post-bac pre-med program at Columbia...." whatever, we saw applicaitons from those guys in 2003-05)

Second point: the specific part of the economy that influences whether people will go to grad/professional school or go into the working world is the ease with which one can be hired for an entry level job requiring a college degree. Profits and all the rest doesn't matter. If recruiters are crawling all over campus, even people who expected to go straight through may decide to take some time off and work in consulting or biotech for a year or two. If those jobs are very few, then trying to land one seems like a risky proposition and one is better off doing the application thing.
 
Nodelphi said:
It's me guys... sorry. It seems to happen every year I apply. Last cycle I applied for was 2000 and there were record numbers of applicants that year too. I'm sorry.
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Well did you at least GET IN this time?? I don't want this problem again when I am reapplying next year!! :laugh: (J/K)
 
Rafa said:
Fewer seniors want to die in Iraq/n.
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Yea because so many are dying there. *****. You are political in every thread.
 
jebus said:
The economy is strong largely because of corporate profits (Wow! Oil companies had record profits last year! Imagine that!). That economic strength isn't trickling down to people.
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This is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard.
 
People just had a lot more sex in the mid-80's than other periods.
 
HMSNeuro said:
agreed.
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Heh. heh. Yea. He said "heard" but you can't actually hear form a message board. Heh. Heh. Yea.

Pretty funny.

The thought crossed my mind as I wrote it but didn't think anyone would be so lame as to have trouble with it. Guess I was wrong.

(Hint: look up the word "heard" at merriam webster, www.m-w.com, and look at definition 2.a. My usage is proper. Thanks for playing.)
 
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