Medical School Applications Surge for New Tampa Campus [2018]




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While first-year medical school enrollment grows nationwide, one Florida program sees a surge in its application volume ahead of moving into a new downtown campus. Here’s a look at what’s happening in medical education news. Enrollment on the rise The Association of American Medical Schools (AAMC), the organization that writes the MCAT, is just out with some new research showing a surge in the number of medical students: First-year enrollment is up 28 percent since 2002. The survey of deans finds that number to be 21,030 in 2016–17. Since 2002, as many as 22 new medical schools have sprouted up, which counts for almost 40 percent of enrollment growth. “The academic medicine community is doing all that it can to address the challenge presented by the looming physician shortage,” said AAMC President and CEO Darrell G. Kirch, MD. “However, increasing medical school enrollment is just the first step in addressing the imminent national shortage of physicians.” (AAMC News) Packaging your resume As you well know, a strong medical school applicant puts together the strongest medical school application possible. That starts with your academics, of course, like your MCAT score and GPA, and also your experience. But how you stress your success is all in the packaging. That’s where your medical school application resume comes in. But don’t do things just to make it look impressive. “Even if you do something that seems impressive, if you’re not able to talk about it in a way that shows your passion for it and your enjoyment of that job, and how it relates to your medical school career and what you want to do as a doctor, it’s not going to be worth that much,” says one student who received won the dean’s scholarship at Boston University School of Medicine. But do be unique. Petros Minasi, director of pre-medical programs at Kaplan Test Prep, says, “Schools are looking for a student that doesn’t fit into a cookie-cutter profile.” (U.S. News & World Report) Preventing bullying among pre-meds ICYMI: Kaplan Test Prep is always interested in hearing about what issues are most important to our MCAT students, be it academic or cultural. We recently surveyed 300 pre-meds to explore a taboo, often unspoken issue: bullying. What we found was that nearly 20 percent had personally experienced or witnessed bullying among pre-meds. What brings on such deplorable behavior among America’s future healers? “Generally speaking, a hyper-competitive culture leading to some bullying behaviors is very common in not only professional graduate programs, but in much of academia,” says Jonathan Westover, associate professor of Organizational Leadership and Ethics. “In part, professors set up graduate programs to support and encourage this sort of culture as a gate keeping strategy—keep the ‘weak’ from completing, or even entering—and as a rite of passage: for example, they might think, ‘I had to go through hell in grad school, so my students should too.’” But as Kaplan’s executive director of pre-medical programs Eric Chiu cautions, “If you are a pre-med student who feels like you are being bullied by a fellow student, it’s important to stand up for yourself and let them know this is not acceptable behavior. … Everyone has a role to play in fostering a healthier academic environment.” (GoodCall) Medical school application uptick in Florida The University of South Florida Morsani College is having something of an application boom. The school is reporting that it has received applications from 6,400 aspiring doctors, but there are only 170 seats available. That 6,400 is 50 percent greater than the number of applicants just three years ago. School officials believe that their pending new location has something to do with it. Come 2019, the school is moving to downtown Tampa. The new location will put students within ten minutes of important venues like Tampa General Hospital and the university’s Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation, a training facility. Edmund Funai, USF Health’s chief operating officer, said the project is on track to begin construction in two months: “It’s on time, on budget and on schedule.” Get the MCAT score your medical school application deserves. Sign up for one of our prep course options and start working your way to Test Day victory.