Quick tip: Ensure that the email and mailing addresses you provide to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) are up-to-date, and once the interview season starts, check your spam box regularly. Many medical schools and residencies contact applicants through email, and you would not want to miss an important notification or invitation because of a simple oversight.
Blog Archives
The Good News and The Bad News…and Then More Bad News
There is a clearly-written article by Jan Greene in the current issue of the Annals of Emergency Medicine about fifteen new, U.S. medical schools that are currently being accredited and slated to open. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) estimates that this increase will lead to an additional seven thousand medical school graduates every year throughout the next decade.
Sounds great, right? More chances of getting into a US medical school!
Well, no so fast.
The idea behind opening these new schools was to preempt the impending doctor shortage, but, as Greene points out, the new medical school openings will not solve the scarcity because there are no plans to increase the number of residency spots. In fact, in fourteen years, the number of teaching hospital residency spots for which Medicare pays a share (about thirty percent) has not increased. With Medicare cuts in the works, it’s unlikely residency positions will expand or that hospitals will have extra funds for unsupported spots.
Unfortunately, this means more competition for residency spots for everyone, especially International Medical Graduates. (The domestic graduates will likely be prioritized by residency directors.) And it means no solution to the doctor shortage. Unless funding for training programs increases, which seems unlikely, future doctors should expect a bottleneck at the post-graduate level. Bad news for doctors and the American medical system.
How to Make a List of Schools to Target for Your Medical School Application
Because getting into medical school continues to get harder each year, the submission of a strong medical school application is critical. It’s important too, to ensure you create a realistic list of medical schools to target. When I review re-applicants’ candidacies to see what went wrong the year before, I oftentimes note that the students did not have enough schools on their lists and that they did not have realistic expectations.
I recommend starting with the Medical School Admission Requirements (MSAR) book, a guide to United States and Canadian medical schools created by the Association for American Medical Colleges (AAMC). This book offers you hard data about mean grade point averages and average MCAT scores, so that you can ensure you are a competitive candidate before you apply. Read more ›
Tags: American Colleges, American Medical Colleges, Application Materials, Average Mcat Scores, Getting Into Medical School, Graduate Programs, Medical Focus, Medical Institutions, Medical School Admission, Medical School Admission Requirements, Medical School Admissions, Medical School Application, Msar, Realistic Expectations, School Admission Requirements
Dr. Finkel is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Medical School. On completing her residency at Harvard, she was asked to
stay on as faculty at Harvard Medical School and spent five years teaching at the world-renowned Massachusetts General Hospital.
She was appointed to the Assistant Residency Director position for the Harvard Affiliated
Emergency Medicine Residency where she reviewed countless applications, personal statements and resumes. Read more
