COVID-19 and Medical School Admissions
From the admissions side COVID-19 has required flexibility and leniency and 93% of medical school admissions officers say their processes have allowed more flexibility including: allowing pass/fail grades, moving interviews online, extending deadlines for submission of MCAT scores.
From the applicant side struggles include difficulty connecting with professors for letters of recommendations, scheduling and taking the MCAT due to cancellations, and staying involved in lab work and shadowing.
Despite these obstacles and the fact that coronavirus has brought to light the challenges and rewards of becoming a physician, applications are increasing this cycle. For many students the pandemic has served as a call to action, but for others it has created some pause and uncertainty. COVID has emphasized that physicians are often asked to put their health needs behind those of others in crisis.
Some of these students are reflecting on whether medicine is the right path due to the politicization of COVID and the mistrust in medical professionals and scientific expertise (Read “The Death of Expertise), increasing burnout, and the cost of our medical care system and the cost of medical education. The application cycle itself has turned into a full time job.
Meanwhile schools have had to adjust their curricula and admissions processes. On the admissions side applications have rose 17% from the previous one, schools have increased flexibility in requiring the MCAT for application review, pushing out application deadlines, allowing pass/fail grades for prerequisite courses, allowing applicants to speak to how COVID 19 affected them, and switching to virtual interviews. The rise in applications is thought to be from a combination of a desire to help spurred by the pandemic, students being home and having time to apply, and the increased flexibility in admissions this year.
Schools are struggling to review this increase in applications, particularly since many admissions offices are work from home. Some schools at this time have not gotten through even half of their applicants. The benefit of virtual interviews is ease in scheduling for students, ability to increase more students, and the financial benefits of not having to travel, however, the flip side is that students are less likely to cancel their interviews even after acceptance to a program they might be likely to attend. This presents a problem for schools that tend to have overlap in applicants in that they are likely all interviewing the same cadre of students. The implications are that there may be increased waitlist movement this application cycle as students are forced to narrow their choices, there will also be a lower acceptance rate from interviews since the number of interviews have gone up but the number of seats have not.
Meanwhile schools have had to adjust their curricula and admissions processes. On the admissions side applications have risen 17%, schools have increased flexibility in requiring the MCAT for application review, deadlines were pushed out, and interviews went virtual. The rise in applications is thought to be from a combination of a desire to help spurred by the pandemic, students being home and having time to apply, and the increased flexibility in admissions this year. Schools are struggling to review this increase in applications, particularly since many admissions offices are work from home. Some schools at this time have not gotten through even half of their applicants. The benefit of virtual interviews is ease in scheduling for students and the financial benefits of not having to travel, however, the flip side is that students are less likely to cancel their interviews even after acceptance to a program they might be likely to attend. This presents a problem for schools that tend to have overlap in applicants in that they are likely all interviewing the same cadre of students. The implications are that there will likely be increased waitlist movement this application cycle as students are forced to narrow their choices.
Are there curricular changes that could affect post COVID medical education? COVID has forced changes in both the preclinical and clinical years. In person learning formats were moved online, medical students were removed from the clinical environment, and schools were forced to develop plans to eventually return students to the clinical environment. When some returned to ambulatory sties clinical training was transitioned to a blend of virtual and in-person patient care. The increase of telemedicine during the pandemic is now expediting the agenda to integrate telemedicine and epidemiology into the medical school curriculum since it is likely to stay. Unintended consequences occurred such as pandemic era isolation and loneliness and loss of opportunity for identity formation and bonding.
Morris G, Patricio M, et. al. Developments in medical education in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: A rapid BEME systematic review: BEME Guide No.63. Medical Teacher 2020, 42(11):1202-1215
