As first-years finally recover from the trauma of applying to college, some college seniors around the country and at Brown are duking it out for coveted seats at medical school.
The already demanding process of applying to med school has become even more difficult in recent years. Nationally, the number of people applying to med school this year has increased by 8.2 percent from the year before, according to an Oct. 16 press release from the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Nearly all applicants begin by filling out a primary application online, which is then sent to the applicant's designated institutions. Upon receipt of the primary application, med schools send secondary applications for prospective students to submit - while many schools send secondaries to all applicants, others are more selective. Admission offices then decide whether to invite the applicant to on-campus interviews.
At Brown's Alpert Medical School, which enrolls 370 medical students, 2,599 secondary applications were completed last year, but only 93 offers of admission were made, in addition to places reserved for participants in the Program in Liberal Medical Education, according to the Med School's Web site. In the past two years, the number of applications has increased by 63 percent, said Kathy Baer, director of admission and financial aid at the Med School.
But Brown is a special case - the "standard" admission route was only implemented in 2004. Previously, admission had been limited to students from special programs, such as PLME students or participants in an early identification program for Rhode Island students. And as the Med School has expanded in size, more spaces have opened up.
Not only are national applicant pools larger this year, but applicants have stronger qualifications than ever. "MCAT test scores and cumulative grade point average were the highest we've ever seen," said AAMC President Darrell Kirch in a recorded press teleconference posted on the AAMC Web site. The percentage of applicants who have experience in research labs and community service in the medical field has also increased over the past five years, according to the AAMC Web site.
But Brown students applying to med school don't seem particularly concerned about the growing competition for admission.
"I didn't even know the numbers had jumped up," said Kevin Hug '08, a current applicant. "There's really nothing I can do about that. I'm trying to play my own game."
Andrew Simmons, associate dean of the College for health and law careers, said he doesn't see the increasing applicant pool size as a "big problem right now." He said there is "always a level of anxiety, always a sense of worry about how competitive and difficult" the process is.
That anxiety, Simmons added, "is as old as the hills."
"It's hard to get into medical school regardless," said Eve Hoffman '09, a PLME student. "I have not been aware of any increasing concern about getting into medical school because of larger applicant pools, per se. But, I think that, in the future, this may add to the stress of the process."
The national trend of increasing med school applications seems to hold true at Brown. Simmons said applicants from Brown - including both seniors and recent graduates - have increased from the low 160s when he arrived in 2005, to 172 applicants this year, including applicants to dental and nursing schools. That number doesn't include PLME students who choose to attend Alpert Medical School instead of applying to other institutions.
Some Brown students applying to med school are dealing with the competition by applying to a greater number of schools. Although Simmons recommends students apply to 10 to 15 schools, some apply to many more. The Health Careers Office sends a maximum of 25 committee packets per student.
Samuel Kim '08 applied to 19 schools. "I thought I would have more options if I applied to more schools," he said. He said his list of potential schools "definitely expanded" when he considered the difficulty of the process.
The increase in the number of applicants happens at the same time that concerns about future physician shortages are mounting. Baer said she thinks the increase in population nationally is leading to "a greater appreciation for the need to have physicians."
Media reports about the growing and aging U.S. population have "sent a very clear message to prospective students that there is a need for physicians," Baer said.
But Simmons warned that pre-meds - and their advisers - shouldn't focus too much on national trends.
"If you spend too much time worrying about trends, you are making yourself crazy," he said. "You may not be taking advantage of what Brown has to offer."
