According to a new report published in JAMA this week, there are some interesting trends out there in medical student education. The number of applicants in 2003 increased by 3.5% to 34786 representing the first gain since 1996. The number of women applying to med school is up 6.7%, and that accounts for most of the applicant number gain.
Mean GPA for med school entrants was 3.64, Mean MCAT scores for Verbal were 9.5, Biological Science MCAT 10.3, Physical Science MCAT 9.9.
This compares to a GPA of 3.47 in 1993, with MCAT Verbal 9.4, Biological Science MCAT 9.4, Physical Science 9.4. So I guess people are getting smarter (or at least the smarter applicants are applying to medical school— either that or the MCAT is getting easier!)
Grads in 2003 had an average debt of $109,457 ! with 83% of graduates having some amount of debt.
More schools are moving to incoporate OSCE type exams and some will require the passing of the USMLE CS exam for graduation.
To read more about this interesting article, see the Full Text Article Here
-Fool