Why is Medical School so competitive?
Mr. A asked:
I’m a pre med student. But I don’t understand why Medical School admissions keeps on getting harder. Some 3,500 plus students applied for 40 slots at my school’s medical program. We have a dangerous shortage of doctors in this country and an obviously high supply of qualified students. But why does year after year admissions becomes more selective.
This entry was posted
on Monday, December 28th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Higher Education (University +).
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I’m a pre med student. But I don’t understand why Medical School admissions keeps on getting harder. Some 3,500 plus students applied for 40 slots at my school’s medical program. We have a dangerous shortage of doctors in this country and an obviously high supply of qualified students. But why does year after year admissions becomes more selective.
Someone please explain this to me. Thanks in advance.
December 28th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
Because despite the fact that there are plenty of medical schools in the US and the Caribbean to answer the problem, there is still a shortage of residency positions; medical schools would hurt their placement numbers if they inflated their incoming numbers. Also, running a medical school is expensive (cadavers, technology, rotation programs, etc). All in all it is in a medical schools favor to keep their numbers manageable, and select.
Add to that the fact that in this economy, everyone thinks becoming a doctor is the only safe route and you get a huge rush to a small door.
It’s a good thing though…I’d rather have my doctor be competitive then not. Peter C
December 30th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
1. Limited number of schools
2. More folks are applying
3. Schools only want the best of the best as they get ranked on where they send their graduates for residencies.
4. Schools don’t want shaky students that might drop out, especially in the first year as they loose that spot for 3 more years and more importantly the tuition money for 3 more years.
5. Less doctors are getting into teaching, teaching doesn’t generate revenue, seeing patients does. Genomic