Why aren’t medical schools warming to the new MCAT?
A top-ranked medical school dean resigns, admissions officers remain cool to the new MCAT, and a recent survey suggests doctors’ pay could rise in the near future—here’s our roundup of medical education news.
Survey predicts doctor pay increase
After two years of slumping wages and stagnant earning potential, U.S. doctors are feeling optimistic about their prospects this year. According to a report that was released earlier this month by CareCloud, a provider of practice management, and QuantiaMD, a mobile community for physicians, more physicians predict that their profits will level out instead of dropping in 2016. Here’s some other interesting findings:
- Nearly 60% of doctors expect they will keep their medical practice, as opposed to selling it or merging it. This is up from 53% in the 2014 survey.
- But for the doctors who do plan on selling their practices, the top reasons listed include too much administrative work, difficulty turning a profit, and burdensome regulation.
- The most favored means of securing doctor pay increases and greater profits that recipients cited include better staffing of their practices and more efficient ways of collecting money owed. (The Chicago Tribune)
Harvard Dean Resigning
After almost 10 years as dean of top-ranked Harvard Medical School, Jeffrey S. Flier will resign at the end end of July, according to an announcement he made last week. He’s not leaving the school completely though. First, he’ll go on sabbatical, then he’ll return as a faculty member. Flier leaves an impressive legacy—His accomplishments include everything from a historic curriculum redesign to a fundraising campaign that aims to bring in $750 million. “Anytime you take a job like this, there’s a point at which you decide it’s time to let someone else go forward. I am going to be completing nine years,” Flier said in a recent interview. (The Boston Globe)
Be Inspired
If you are a senior pre-med, then you are closer than ever to achieving your long-held dream of getting into medical school. You’ve built a strong GPA, served as a campus leader, and prepared rigorously for the MCAT. To help you along the way, here are some inspirational quotes from some of history’s most accomplished figures:
- “If you can’t fly, then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.” —Martin Luther King, Jr.
- “The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work; second, stick-toitiveness; third, common sense.” —Thomas Edison
- “Consider the postage stamp: Its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing till it gets there.” —Josh Billings (PredMedLife)
Med Schools Opine on New MCAT
Public opinion is subject to change when there’s no information and data, so keep that in mind when you read about the results of Kaplan Test Prep’s 2015 survey of medical school admissions—if you haven’t read about it already. According to our survey of nearly 70 medical school across the United States, only about 40% think the new MCAT will better prepare prospective students for medical school than the old one did. This is a big drop from findings in Kaplan’s 2014 survey. But, it’s important to note that that drop in support shifted to the “undecided” column, not to the “negative” column. Kaplan is confident that once medical schools receive more applications featuring the new MCAT—and thus more data—they’ll warm up to the revised exam. (The Universe)
Big Sky Country May Get Medical School
Although Montana is one of the largest states geographically, it’s among the least populated—and it’s also one of the few that doesn’t have a medical school. That may soon change. An entrepreneur from New Mexico has approached Montana State University about the possibility of building one in Bozeman. Currently, the university has a pre-med program, but all of its graduates must then go out of state to continue their studies. Many of those students then decided to stay in those states in which they studied, therefore depriving Montana of doctors. And with baby boomer doctors retiring, this has caused a severe doctor shortage in some parts of the state. (NBC Montana)
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