Medical School Enrollment Reaches Record High
DETROIT _ Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine led the nation in medical school enrollment with a 47.2 percent increase in numbers released Tuesday. The college’s freshman class grew to 150 in August, up from 106 in 2006.
The incoming class’ enrollment numbers at MSU and other colleges were included in a report by the Association of American Medical Colleges of 126 U.S. medical schools. Enrollment at U.S. medical schools is the largest in U.S. history, but more than half who apply are rejected, the report said.
The increase at MSU addresses projected shortages of physicians statewide and nationally, as more doctors face retirement or leave the field, stressed by reimbursement, malpractice suits, bureaucracy and other issues.
MSU will open a satellite campus in Grand Rapids by 2008 to train 100 students there; the other half of the students will take classes on the school’s East Lansing campus.
“The pool applying is stronger and more diverse than ever before,” said Dr. Marsha Rappley, dean of the MSU school. Women comprise 53 percent of the MSU program; Michigan residents, 26 percent; and disadvantaged and minority students, 26 percent.
In the next three years, 48 percent of physicians ages 50 to 65 plan to retire, seek non-clinical jobs, work part time, close their practice or reduce the number of patients they see, according to a survey released Monday by Merritt Hawkins & Associates, an Irving, Texas-based physician search firm.
Nationally, 17,800 students began medical school this year, a 2.3 percent increase over 2006. Meanwhile, 42,315 people applied _ a 58 percent rejection rate.
Abdulrahman El-Sayed, 22, a first-year University of Michigan medical student, said he chose the University of Michigan because of the diversity of its programs. The school gave him a full scholarship.
Yearly tuition alone at medical schools is $22,000 at public institutions for in-state tuition and as high as $38,000 at private schools, according to the AAMC. Students typically leave medical school with $130,000 in debt.
The University of Michigan had 5,787 applicants for 170 positions. About 14 percent are granted an interview.
At Wayne State University, 300 first-year students were accepted of the 3,972 who applied.
Oakland University and Beaumont Hospitals hope to start a medical school by 2010 on the university’s Rochester campus.
___
(c) 2007, Detroit Free Press.
Visit the Freep, the World Wide Web site of the Detroit Free Press, at http://www.freep.com.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.