OSU medical school applications on the rise
Competition for limited available spots gets tougher
Kate Holland’s pursuit of a career in medicine is fueled by her passion for interacting with people and her desire to make a difference in people’s lives.
The 21-year-old Ohio State senior was already on track to apply to medical school before COVID-19, but the pandemic has sparked a newfound interest in the area of infectious disease for the Akron native.
“I think medicine is one of those fields that’s unique in that you have a skill set and you can enact change,” she said.
Holland is one of 8,209 applicants to the Ohio State University College of Medicine for the class of 2025 – a roughly 14% increase over last year, said Dr. Demicha Rankin, the college’s associate dean of admissions.
Nationally, the number of students applying to enter medical school in 2021 is up 18% over this time last year, said Geoffrey Young, senior director of student affairs and services at the Association of American Medical Colleges.
“This type of single-year increase is
really unprecedented,” he said.
Medical schools across the country have reported seeing anywhere from a 7% to 28% increase in applicants this year, Young said. By comparison, the average increase over the previous 10 years was 2.5%.
This increase in medical school applicants has been dubbed by some admissions officers as the “Fauci effect,” suggesting Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has inspired a new generation of doctors.
Holland, however, has her doubts that the surge has been caused by the pandemic or Fauci.
“I think that it might be a false trend just because applying to medical school is such a long process that it’s hard for me to think that so many people are applying just because of COVID-19,” she said.
Applicants need to start preparing for their portfolio years in advance before applying to medical school in order to be considered competitive applicants, Young said.
“I do think the pandemic has certainly inspired students to pursue a career in medicine, and I think it’s important to acknowledge that the increase in applications we’re seeing is driven by students who started their journey several years ago,” he said.
Holland applied to 26 medical schools and has already been accepted to Ohio State’s College of Medicine, but hasn’t decided where to go as she waits to hear from other schools.
She is set to graduate from Ohio State in the spring with bachelor degrees in anthropology and biology.
COVID-19 restrictions that forced people to spend more time at home might have actually given prospective medical school students more time to work on their applications, Rankin said.
“Students could be motivated by the dedication they’ve seen from a lot of the frontline health care workers and the fact that health care is being celebrated as heroes,” she said. “That can make the profession desirable. There’s also a desire to bring equitable care to their own communities during this time of crisis.”
The increase in applicants is not limited to just medical schools. The baccalaureate degree program at Ohio State University’s College of Nursing also has seen an increase in applicants as the Friday deadline approaches.
As of Wednesday, the program has 436 applications that are in process and another 107 that have been completed and submitted, said Cindy Anderson, academic dean of the College of Nursing. By comparison, 328 applicants were in progress at this time last year.
The program expects to see at least 20% more submitted applications once the deadline rolls around compared to last year, she said.
“Now that we see nurses in the front lines, providing care to patients, helping families manage all the illnesses that are Covid-19-related, I think that really has stimulated the additional interest in wanting to become a nurse,” Anderson said.
Despite the record increase in applications and interest, there’s a limited number of spots available, college officials said, making this year even more competitive for applicants.
Ohio State’s medical school admits between 200 and 210 applicants, Rankin said. And the bachelor’s degree program in Ohio State’s nursing school accepts only 166 applicants, Anderson said.
“It’s a very sobering statistic,” Rankin said. “It is a very competitive process.” mhenry@dispatch.com @megankhenry