Medical school applications once again on the rise: reversal of a 6-year decline.(Practice Trends)

Medical schools are seeing the reversal of a 6-year decline in applications as the economy sags and students gravitate toward careers of service.

At press time, the Association of American Medical Colleges expected this year's final number of applicants to be about 35,500, said Robert F. Jones, Ph.D., AAMC's vice president for medical school services and studies.

Based on the number of students who have already taken the Medical College Admission Test this year, and the number of applications already submitted to the AAMC's centralized application service, Dr. Jones said that the 2004-2005 class year will continue the new upward trend.

"Generally, medical school applications run in cycles," Dr. Jones said. The most recent peak came in 1996-1997 when medical schools had 46,965 applicants or about 2.7 applicants for every available position. Applications started declining the next year, eventually falling to 33,625 for the 2002-2003 school year, or 1.9 per position, according to AAMC data.

Even at its lowest point, medical schools had about two applicants for every position, he said.

The quality of applicants has also remained strong in recent years.

"People worry when the applicant pool declines," Dr. Jones said. "[But] the message is that medicine is consistently an attractive career path."