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Admissions Initiatives
The AAMC continues to introduce and offer many initiatives to broaden
the medical school applicant pool, and improve the selection process
to create a diverse, capable, and caring physician workforce for
the 21st century. The AAMC believes that the work of expanding and
diversifying the physician workforce and ensuring that all Americans
have access to competent, caring doctors depends on many factors
in the medical student selection process.
The following are the main focus areas of admission initiatives
at the AAMC.
Diversity
With an increasingly diverse United States, we must continue to
increase the diversity of physicians serving this population. The
AAMC embraces a broad definition of diversity that includes racial
and ethnic diversity, socioeconomic diversity, diversity in sexual
orientation, and geographic diversity. Many programs within the
AAMC are directed at increasing the diversity of the medical school
applicant pool, which will lead to an increasingly diverse physician
workforce in our country.
Learn more about the AAMC's diversity initiatives.
Medical School and Physician Workforce Expansion
With an aging American population and many physicians approaching
retirement age, the United States is expected to experience a significant
physician shortage in the very near future. In addition, postgraduate
training programs in the United States depend on international medical
school graduates for more than 30 percent of their residents and
fellows. Since 2006, the AAMC has advocated for medical school expansion
in the United States. In 2008, more than 18,000 students entered
U.S. medical schools for the first time due to the expansion in
class size that has occurred at many member medical schools. Since
2003, this represents a 9 percent increase. In 2009, four new medical schools
in Florida (2), Pennsylvania, and Texas will enroll students. In
the previous 23 years, there have been only two new medical schools
in the United States.
Learn more about the AAMC's
medical school and physician workforce expansion initiatives.
Student Selection
The process of selecting a medical school class is complex and
intense. American medical schools receive, on average, 31 applications
for each place in the entering class, with a range of 2.5 applications
for each place among public medical schools to 76 applications among
private medical schools. It is therefore essential to align the
admissions process so that students better understand the differences
among individual U.S. medical schools, and that medical schools
enroll students who, as a group, fulfill the institution's individual
mission and goals.
Learn more about the AAMC's
Student Selection initiatives.
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