Hey I hear that the number of people applying to medical school (including all Med schools) is decreasing. Anyone else hear this? I hear a lot of things so I don't know if its true or not. Anyone know of a website that displays this type of information? Another thing I have read on this forum that after each match there is always spots that go unfilled. I know each school almost always fills up each year...so does that mean for all the students in all the schools that place people does not equal the number of spots? Maybe there is a percentage that does not go into residence...I know some get a law degree and work for the enemy (insurance companies) If anyone has some insight into this let me know.


...Hey at least I didn't ask about cell phones

I have heard the stat of decreasing applications to US schools for several years. I have never bothered to validate it myself, tho. The logic is that you can make so much money in other, less demanding fields with less schooling that less people are choosing medicine because of the inherent ** in the system. Go figure.

As far as unmatched spots, yes, it is a fact that there are more residency spots than US grads every year. This allows for thousands of FMGs to match in the US. And even with all the extra apps, there are still spots that go unmatched. What happens is, the day of the match, when people find out they didn't get a spot, they begin the 'scramble'.... this means faxing your application and resume willy-nilly all over the country to places that didn't match someone. These places will get tons of apps from people who didn't match, and will begin replying, hopefully with interviews, and/or an offer of residency. In this way, you can still obtain a decent residency position even if you didn't match. It is truly a 'scramble' for a day or two, though. That's about all I know about it, maybe Dr. Durst or Faith or FLK could help us out some more.

...............

All the red tape and especially getting paid for the services you give keep getting harder. The insurance companies have way too much power. It seems they just deny claims for no good reason and have to make the staff refile, refile, refile, contest, refile, by the time you get paid for your services a year later you have already spent all the cash contesting and refiling. It is so much difficult now than it was in the early 90s.

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Maybe its the bumps that make life interesting and let one discern the endeavors they may achieve.

i actually looked this up a few years back and it does fluctuate depending on the economy. the report i read was that when there is "easier" money to be made people shy away from traditional profs like medicine and law and go for business related stuff and IT. for med school apps i don't think the fluctuations matter much even if there is a 50% drop in apps just b/c the applicant pool is relatively evenly matched in qualifications and number of slots is so low....ok so you go from a 8%acceptance rate to 15% there are still more than 70% of applicants shot down.....

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OBGYN PGY II
I see light at the end of the tunnel!!!...wait a minute its just another freakin tunnel!

Good Ol' Hillary Clinton....anyone think of her lately. She will be running not this next election, but I presume the one after. And if Bush wins, she'll be facing no incumbent. Gives her better chances, and she wants to make a universal health care system like Canada. Then you will be told what kind of doctor you will be. As for pay, see ya.

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Sometimes in life we have to be honest with ourselves in what it is in our best interest, even though it goes against our "want's" or egos.

It will never happen.
She envisioned a Gestapo style health system, where medical students were ordered into particular specialties and told where to live.
there were severe penalties for violating the "rules".

I also seem to remember her dumping a bunch of pharma stock prior to odrering a govt crackdown on the pharma insustry.
Prices dropped.
later she bought it back and then decided they were not going after the industry at all.
made a small killing!
She makes Martha Stewart look like Mother Theresa

You would see doctors leaving the profession at record pace in hillary Karl Marx Medical system

She actually should have been hauled before congress and had to answer some serious questions for all those closed door meetings and insider trading

bush wins.....man what a scary trhought....take a ride over to bushisms.com and peek at exactly what kind of moron we have ruining the relatively free world....he actually asked once if the information highway gets traffic jams.... :P two themes to live by:

1-if you're not a rebel by the time you are 21 then you have no heart, if you don't conform to the system by the time you're 30 you have no brains

2-vote democrat while in college to protect your student aid, protect inteterests of the poor, etc. then turn republican after you graduate to protectr the interests of the big companies that you have stock in and keep those government bastards from taking your taxes and giving it to students...hehe

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OBGYN PGY II
I see light at the end of the tunnel!!!...wait a minute its just another freakin tunnel!

How can you support socialized medicine. That is what the dems basically want. If my salary were fixed at $80K/year, i would be out medicine so fast that it would tear your fascia. It wouldn't be worth it. Things are already ugly. I spend a good part of my day filling out forms that say the patient needs the medication I prescribed. duh, i wouldn't have prescribed it if I didn't think they needed it. If you fix the drug prices the pharmaceutical companies won't make any new drugs and we'll all miss out. You see, we live in a capitalist economy. You can't take the capitalism out of any aspect of the economy or that sector will break down. Did you happen to catch the experiment in socialism? There are 2 that I can think of. One is called Cuba, and the other was the USSR. They didn't do so well, did they? In order for our way of life to survive, there have to be haves and have nots. I have seen both sides of the fence. In terms of healthcare, many of the have-nots get better health care than we would. If you are on disability and get medicaid, your prescriptions are free. No copays etc.

Now let's look at how the "have-nots" live. Sure they live in slums. They also have running water, heat, electricity, and in many cases cable color television. Not bad by world standards. Get married to someone who works and earns a pretty average wage, and you can move out of the slums and into the burbs on your 2 person income. Sorry, my friend, I don't feel compelled to take a ton of meny out of my check to give to people so they can watch Sex in the City. Now that my paychecks are a bit bigger, it makes me sick to see how much is taken out in taxes. My tax bill this year will be about 75% of my GROSS INCOME last year. sickening. G

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AUC Class of '99
Bored certified
I may be a jerk, but I'm a Jedi jerk like my father.

Some say I look like Buzz Lightyear....
(They're right)

DISCLAIMER: I have no financial stake in ValueMD, or any medical school.

Yes, but conforming doesn't mean you have to believe in it though
You can't just become a robot. You can try to change things for the better without being a "21 year old rebel"

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Sometimes in life we have to be honest with ourselves in what it is in our best interest, even though it goes against our "want's" or egos.