Despite the staggering costs of a medical degree, the number of students enrolled in medical schools has reached a new high of 20,343, according to a new report released by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).
The spike in the number of applicants to medical schools also rose by 3.1 percent to 49,480. Among Hispanic and Latinos, the number of medical school enrollees increased by 1.8 percent to 1,859 and among African-Americans, enrollment rose 1.1 percent to 1,412.
In a conference call with reporters this week, Dr. Darrell G. Kirch, president and CEO of AAMC, said that the numbers — particularly among women and minorities — are encouraging.
“In spite of the ongoing partisan debate around the nation’s health care system, it is gratifying to see that increasing numbers of students want to become physicians,” he said. “However, these results show that our nation must act without delay to ensure an adequate number of residency training positions for these aspiring doctors so they will be able to care for our growing and aging population.”
While males enrolling in medical school continue to outpace females 52 to 42 percent, the number of women applicants rose this year by 3.3 percent to 17,625 compared to a 2.1 percent increase in first-time male applicants (19,066).
“Medical schools understand that an effective physician workforce is a diverse workforce,” said Kirch. “In addition to schools using new, innovative admissions practices that look at attributes and experiences in addition to grades and test scores, they also are working to strengthen the K-12 pipeline. The gains we are seeing show that we are making progress, but there still needs to be more work done to diversify the talent pool.”
Still, the growing cost of attending medical school has forced some, like Cleveland native Dennis Brown, to abandon the profession altogether.
