By Sumit De
It used to be that the words "MCAT" and "orgo" alone sent shivers down any pre-med student's back, but no longer. With the number of medical school applicants doubling in the past five years, and the federal government calling for a new managed health care system and a decrease in the number of doctors, the MCATs and organic chemistry are only part of the problem. Getting into med school isn't simply about test scores and grades anymore.
The American Association of Family Practitioners and the Council on Graduate Medical Education filed a report in October of last year that suggested 500 current medical school spots be dropped in order to avoid an anticipated glut in doctors beginning at the turn of the century. At the same time, officials at Duke University announced the cutting of medical school admissions by 40 percent over the next four years which would have a profound impact on its medical program, long regarded as one of the top five in the country.
The changes in the medical field and the increased cut-throat competition these changes foster are leaving many Yalies feeling lost and helpless. In an effort to help students decide on where to apply and how, the University provides pre-medical advisors who meet with students on a regular basis and guide them through the application process. Although this system is a big help, it can appear quite daunting, and in some instances lead to even more stress. "You never get to meet any of [the pre-med advisors]-all you're given is a list of names with their specialties and the times the doctors can meet. There's no way of knowing whether or not you'll be compatible with your advisor, and this is the person who's going to write your recommendation and guide you through the process. It's almost as if it's completely arbitrary," Leslie Rhee, ES '96, said.
But even with a good pre-med advisor in place the pinch to get into a medical school can be felt through the advice given out by faculty members. "[The pre-med advisors] essentially look at your MCAT Scores and your GPA-just by looking at those two components if they don't think you have a decent shot, they're kind of pessismistic and encourage you to take a year off or do a year of research. I know a lot of people who've been encouraged to take time off," Rhee said.
Some students wonder whether the absence of a declared pre-med track at Yale makes them less prepared to handle medical school and is a blemish on their record. However, Assitant Dean of Yale College and Director of Undergraduate Career Services Susan Hauser said,"No institution that has a specified 'pre-med' track has a better record than Yale. You need one year of inorganic chemistry, one year of organic, one year of physics, one year of biology, math, and English. We offer all of those courses in varying degrees of ability so everybody can find the right classes for their pre-medical education requirements."
These classes however, often end up as 200-300 person lectures riddled with aspiring doctors, fiercely competing with one another. Not only is getting a good grade harder, but it is virtually impossible for the professors to know the students individually, making recommendations even that much more difficult to obtain. "It's so hard to get recommendations from professors in introductory science classes. The professors have no idea who you are, so quite often students have to go to TAs, lab professors, or lab TAs. But the TAs actually know you, which counts a lot," med school applicant Amy Neurnburg, SY '96, said. "In order to get a recommendation from one of the major professors like Shepartz or Moore, they see if you got a high grade in their class, then they'll write a recommendation. It's totally not how you are as a person but whether or not you succeeded in their class that determines whether they think you will make a good medical person or not," Rhee said.
UCS does provide some services, however, that help prepare future med students. "I feel very fortunate. My advisor was fantastic and I had a really great experience with UCS," Amy Winkelstein, PC '96, said.
Although the acceptance rate for Yale's first-time applicants to medical school has decreased from well over 90 percent a few years ago to 84 percent in 1994, the outlook is not as bleak as it sounds. Overall, Yale's pre-meds have not been hit as hard as others across the country. The number of medical school positions stayed fairly constant at about 16,000 between 1990 and 1994, however, during the same time the number of applications rose from 29,243 to 45,365.
What can Yale students do, then, that they haven't been doing? Most students don't realize that 70 percent of them will end up in their home state studying medicine. Coming from the Ivy League, they tend to think of attending private schools. "American medical colleges were standardized early in the 20th century, it's not like colleges-histology is histology everywhere," said Hauser. "If you really want to be a doctor, the mere numbers of applicants or the general difficulty in gaining admission isn't going to deter students that much," Winkelstein said.
In the end, Hauser, said that there is no need for Yalies to worry that much. "Yale students are considered to be well-rounded, literate, and articulate. Medical schools know that a Yalie is coming from one of the best schools in the nation. I don't know what can be done that already hasn't to make him seem more attractive," she said.
Copyright 1996, The Yale Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
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