Applications to med school fall around the U.S.

Seems the letters "M.D." may be loosing ground to "Esq."

Medical school applications across the nation dropped in 2000 for the fourth consecutive year, while law school applications saw a significant jump.

A study published earlier this month in The Journal of the American Medical Association found that only 37,092 people applied to medical schools across the nation in 2000, down 3.7 percent from 1999. Meanwhile, law school applications were up 5.6 percent, the largest increase in over a decade.

Many experts attribute the change to the strong economy of the 1990s, which attracted many would-be doctors to high-return dot-com ventures instead. Others blamed the expansion of HMOs and the complications that managed health care presents to doctors.

Though still declining, the number of medical school applications this year dropped less than in 1999, when applications fell 6 percent nationally and 11 percent at Penn. Medical school applications across the country have dropped each year since 1996, when they reached an all-time high of 46,968.

Barbara Barzansky, the report's author and secretary of the American Medical Association's medical education council, suggested that dot-com jobs and concerns over managed health care have contributed to this year's smaller applicant pool.

But as the once-lucrative market for Internet jobs continues to fall apart, experts predict that the number of students applying to medical school will soon be back on track.

Gaye Sheffler, director of admissions and financial aid at Penn's School of Medicine, pointed out that glitches in an online application system may also complicate the application process this year.

She also said that complex factors affected the number of medical school applications.

"The decline has been going on since 1996," Sheffler said. "Nobody can predict what the outcome will be with that."

However, some suggest that the drop isn't temporary at all, and believe medicine may be becoming a less and less desirable field to enter.

"Medicine no longer has the reputation for being a sure road to financial wealth and high social status the way that law has come to be seen as a pretty sure bet," said Andrew Coopersmith, who advises pre-law and pre-health students at the University's Career Services office. "I think that many students are not likely to choose medical school as an alternative to finding a job if finding a job becomes difficult."

The number of Penn students thinking about applying to medical school was "significantly down from last year," according to Coopersmith.

"I think the general perception is that law is a more financially lucrative field than medicine these days," he said. "It maintains its independence whereas the encroachment of managed care onto medicine makes it seem like less of an autonomous profession."

However, Sheffler had words of caution for the record 24,000 people who took the June LSAT exam: "Not every lawyer is making money."

The average graduate of a private medical school will owe more than $120,000 in loans by the time he graduates, according to U.S. News and World Report. Law school graduates often face similar debts, but some of the pay-offs, like prestige and job satisfaction, that doctors traditionally enjoyed later on in their practices seem to be diminishing.

According to one study of Massachusetts doctors released this summer, physicians' satisfaction with their professional lives has substantially decreased in the last 15 years. Of those surveyed, only a little more than half said they were happy with their incomes.

In the study, doctors listed the limited amount of time they were able to spend with patients, lack of leisure time and health insurance authorization procedures as some of the reasons for their discontent.

The smaller applicant pool may slightly improve students' chances of acceptance into medical school.

However, the American Medical Association study points out that there are still over twice as many applicants as there are open spaces at medical schools. And though applications might be down, nobody is yet expressing concern over the quality of the applicant pool.

"It's still extremely competitive," Coopersmith said. "The numbers have dropped, but not so much that it's a simple process to get in."

Typically, when the economy sours, graduate school applications rise, Coopersmith said. However, medical school applications may not see immediate results, he said, adding, "It may take more than a year before people begin to recognize the glory days of the '90s are over."

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.