In 1997, 43,020 applicants competed some 16,000 medical school openings nationwide. Twenty-six of those applicants were Union students or alumni; thirteen were accepted.
The number of medical school applicants has more than doubled since 1988, making entry into such programs incredibly competitive. Carol Weisse, Union's director of health profession programs for the past three years, explains that tough competition means that Union premedical students are doing some things differently.
Q: How have Union's acceptance rates been over the past several years?
Weisse: During my three years as director of health professions programs, there has been a big change. We went from an all-time low for the fall of 1996 to a point now where nearly everyone who has applied has gotten in somewhere. I say 'somewhere' because we are processing students for entry into all doctoral programs in medicine, which includes osteopathy, podiatry, optometry, dentistry, pharmacy, and veterinary medicine in addition to traditional medicine.
In 1997, our total doctoral acceptance rate without including seven-year medical students was seventy-five percent; the acceptance rate for applicants to M.D. programs was fifty percent. These are good numbers considering how competitive the application process has become.
Q: How has Union's guidance of pre-medical students changed in the last several years to address the increased competitiveness in admission to medical schools?
Weisse: Our goal has been to make sure that no students apply before they are ready and that no one applies who is not strong and competitive in the areas that the medical schools scrutinize. If students are not ready, we suggest that they wait, build their credential file, and apply when they are a more competitive candidate. When students apply before they are truly competitive, it is a “lose-lose” situation. Students lose time, they lose money, and they lose the edge of being a fresh, new applicant. Medical schools know when students have previously applied to any medical school. Union's reputation gets put on the line as well.
Q: What do you suggest for students who aren't strong in some areas?
Weisse: It depends on where they are weak. Some students have a wonderful academic record, but they haven't worked with the needy or sick. GPA is not the only thing that the medical schools consider. They want to see that applicants have spent time volunteering or working in a hospital getting clinical experience or reaching out to those in need.
Most often, however, I see the reverse — students who have extensive community service and/or clinical experience, but either their science GPA or their MCAT score is too low. We encourage students whose science background is weak to apply to post-baccalaureate programs, which are specifically designed for students who are a little weak in the sciences. Many of these one-year masters's degree programs are at medical schools and can serve as bridge programs to the medical school.
Q: What about low MCAT scores?
Weisse: They are our biggest dilemma, because it is hard to make a student a good standardized test taker. Some students actually choose Union because they know that SAT scores are not required — they have good grades but have difficulty on standardized tests. Unfortunately, the number one predictor of MCAT performance is performance on the SAT. If you look at the year where we had a very poor acceptance rate to medical schools, fifty percent of those students had verbal SAT scores of 500 or lower, so they probably did not get into medical school because they didn't do well enough on the MCAT. While Union's overall scores on the MCAT have notchanged, the average MCAT of accepted students has gone up three points, making Union's average MCAT scores no longer competitive with the national pool.
One approach we have been taking is to help students start preparing for the MCAT earlier. We now tell freshmen interested in medical programs to begin preparing during the freshmen year, especially if their SATs were below 1200. The bookstore now sells MCAT practice tests, and our recommendation to all incoming freshmen pre-meds is that they get one of those tests, carry it with them through their science classes, and seek the assistance of their professors if they can't answer a question. So, basically we encourage them to spend three years trying to familiarize themselves with the MCAT.
Two years ago, President Hull provided our office with the funds to bring in a nationally-known consultant who gave a two-day MCAT workshop for our students and faculty. We are always looking for donations to fund such programs because the more we can provide programs like that for our students, the better off we are going to be. Unfortunately, the MCATs are keeping a lot of our good students out of medical school.
Q: Other than looking at the MCAT early, what are you suggesting for freshmen and sophomores?
Weisse: Freshmen and sophomores interested in the health professions are encouraged to meet with Karen Williams, pre-health counselor and adjunct associate professor of biology, to discuss ways that they can develop the necessary skills for a career.
Our job is also to educate students about the many options open in the health care field. This approach is quite useful because a good number of our students are finding out about other careers that they actually like better — physician's assistant, occupational therapist, nurse practitioner, genetic counselor, and so on. The previous advising system did not do as much educational programming to open students' eyes about the array of career options, nor did it encourage students to begin preparation as early as the freshmen year.
Q: We have seen the acceptance rates grow fairly remarkably in the last several years. To what do you attribute that?
Weisse: Better advising, earlier advising, and fewer — but stronger — students applying at a time when they are truly ready. We have finally reached a point where students understand that only under certain conditions does it make sense to apply as early as the junior year. A delayed application is almost always a stronger, and hence more successful, application.
The health professions advisory committee has also decided that it doesn't make sense to support the application of every student. While this was a difficult decision for the committee, it was decided that we would not write a letter for a student if, in the junior year, the credential file was weak. We basically say, 'You're not ready. You have another year here at Union; use it to strengthen your file.' If that student reappears in our office during his or her senior year with a credential file still not up to par, we will write that student a courtesy letter. But when we do this, we give honest feedback about what our rankings may be and recommend that the student delay further, all the while providing guidance on how to best spend their time.
Q: How do medical schools really look at our students?
Weisse: In the 1980s there were far fewer applicants to medical school; therefore, there was a better chance that the admissions committee would read a student's complete folder. With the increase in the applicant pool, only those committee letters from students with high numbers are being read. If your MCAT or science GPA is a little low, there's a good chance that the letter describing you as a remarkable human being is not going to be read, and that's a shame. Just a few years ago, Albany Medical College had 10,000 applicants for about eighty-five spots. Obviously, they are not going to read the committee letters for all 10,000 applicants. What they are going to do is an initial screening based on MCAT and GPA.
The challenge for us has been to get the medical schools to look at our students. Once they do read about our students, I think they are very impressed with their well-roundedness, their leadership abilities, and their undergraduate experiences, particularly for those who have traveled abroad. This past year, I wrote to the deans at every medical school, introducing myself and explaining Union's new advising system. I also conveyed my commitment to providing them with honest evaluations of candidates from Union. I received a great response to this letter from the medical schools, and I think that getting the word out about who we are and what we do is helping.
Q: How many Union students are considering medical school?
Weisse: About 300, if you look across all four years. We don't have a pre-med major, so keeping track of who is pre-med is a difficult task. We encourage all students interested in the health professions to visit our office in their freshman year, but there is no way to ensure that this happens, and some students fall through the cracks.
Q: So why do you think so many students are interested in applying to medical schools?
Weisse: My husband says it is the popularity of the television show “ER” and that we saw a similar situation with “L.A. Law” sparking law school applications in the 1980s. I think there may be some glorification in these shows, but I also think that some students simply haven't given much thought to the fast-changing face of medicine. With managed care, medicine may no longer offer the autonomy and salaries that it used to. I suspect that in three to four years we may see a decline in the number of applicants to medical school, but that this will probably be accompanied by an increase in applications to other health professions.
Q: How can alumni in the medical profession help Union students interested in medicine?
Weisse: Alumni have already been a tremendous help to our students, and I appreciate all the kind offers made to support our Health Professions Program. In fact, just recently the Pre-Health Society took a field trip to New York City and met with alumni (see attached list), who graciously gave their time to talk with our students about their professions.
In fact, many alumni, including Drs. Shari Midoneck '85, Jeff Wisoff '74, Alan Benvenisty '74, Robert and Christine Stoltz '89, Jennifer Koestler '93, and Ira Garland '91, took students on tours of their workplaces.
Whenever alumni can take our students into their clinics, labs, and various practices, they do a great service to Union. It is difficult for our students to get meaningful clinical experiences unless someone is willing to mentor them and offer their time and expertise.
Alumni involved in the admissions process could also help by serving as advocates for Union students and by calling attention to some of the unique experiences that Union students may bring to the field of medicine. For example, a good number of our pre-med students are preparing themselves for medicine in the twenty-first century by attaining advanced degrees in health care administration through Union's Graduate Management Institute. Other students are traveling abroad and studying health care from an international perspective. The more alumni can urge admissions representatives to read about these strengths, the more our students will get the chances that they deserve.
We are always looking for funding for programs designed to improve our students' MCAT scores, such as the one President Hull funded two years ago.