Fewer undergrads apply to medical, dental schools, backing national trend

While the number of applicants to medical and dental schools increased by 4 percent this year, reversing a six-year trend, the number of applicants from Tufts remains low.

This year, 107 undergraduates applied to medical and dental schools, compared with 113 last year and 117 the year before. Applications peaked in 1997, when 143 students applied to such schools.

Nationwide, the numbers of applications have still not rebounded to the all-time high of 47,000 reached in 1996; this year, there were almost 35,000 applicants.

Applications to graduate schools have historically increased when there has been a downturn in the economy.

"My reading of the tea leaves is that when the economy starts to sour, more students apply to med schools," Bernheim said. "When times are robust, economically speaking, more people seem to go into business."

Initial indicators suggest that with the economy rebounding, members of the class of 2004 will have an easier time finding a job than last year's graduates. A survey by Michigan State University of 450 small and large companies found that 60 percent of respondents expected to increase or maintain hiring levels. Fifty-five percent of companies responded the same way a year earlier.

"I don't think people are all of a sudden switching from other tracks," said Kimi Kobayashi, co-president of the Tufts Pre-Medical Society. "Tufts has such a strong pre-med reputation."

In recent years, about half of all medical school applicants from Tufts have been accepted to at least one school. With the applicant pool expanding, however, the chance of admission diminishes.

"Competition becomes more furious," said Tufts University School of Medicine Dean of Admissions Robert Sarno.

He emphasized that students should not get too ahead of themselves during the admissions process, as there is little a student can do to become more competitive in the eyes of admissions officers.

"Either you are or you aren't [competitive]. You can't cure cancer before you graduate from college," Sarno said.

According to Ed Dagang, Director of Admissions at the University of California at Davis, the achievements outside the classroom are what make a candidate unique.

"Folks believe that if they complete everything, get the GPA and MCAT scores, then there's an entitlement to a spot in med school, but that's not the case," he said. Dagang said that the applicant pool at Davis has grown slightly over the past three years.

"I'm not sure students at Tufts are worried," Kobayashi said. "I don't think people are anxious about getting in, more just about the process. It might become more competitive, although I feel pre-meds on the whole are pretty competitive anyway. I'm not saying to myself 'I wish I had applied five years earlier because of all these increased applicants.'"

While requests for application materials to Tufts Medical School have declined steadily over the past five years from 9,338 in 1998 to 7,430 this year, the number of completed applications has remained relatively stable. This year, the school received 5,668 applications, compared with 5,121 applications in the 2001-2002 academic year.

Over the past five years, between eight and ten percent of applicants were accepted, but the school's yield -- the number of accepted students who actually attend -- has fallen from 41 percent in 1998 to 32 percent for this year's first-year class.

A year at Tufts Medical School costs $40,094, including fees. Even though tuition did not increase over last year's rates, Tufts remains the most expensive medical school in the country.

The school is starting to introduce programs that help students with financing. "Life Skills" is scheduled to be introduced in 2004 to assist students with budgeting, loan payments, and preparing financially for residency.

"We're here to help students," said Tara Olsen, the medical school's director of financial aid.

Four of five students receive financial aid of some form and the average debt for members of the 2003 graduating class at the medical school was $160,343.

"Any type of free money the student can get helps out," Olsen said.

Sarno, the dean of admissions, acknowledged that student debt is a problem. "It affects the choice to practice when they [med students] get out," he said. "They won't be able to their pay debt if they're just doing primary care. It's becoming obscene, the amount of debt some of these students are graduating with."