<p>I have been talking to quite a few med students and a couple of medical school faculty( I don't know if they are involved with admissions) and A lot of them say that older applicants, that have 2-3 years of time after finishing college and then apply to medical school are preferred by med schools, over those who apply in their senior year or earlier. I know a med student at John Hopkin's who said half his class is over 30.</p>
<p>Now obviously if one has more time, they can make their application stronger by doing research, more volunteering etc.</p>
<p>However, does anyone have a good opinion on whether med schools really do prefer slightly older applicants? Just on the basis of maturity? Or would this "preference" have significant impact on admissions? Or does anyone have a data from the AMCAS that correlates acceptance rate and application age.</p>
<p>Also for this topic, I am not including any applicants who have graduate degrees, only at most a post-Bacc program.</p>
<p>Not opinion, fact (see above-linked stats from the AAMC). Lots of my med school class was non-traditional in some way. And now in residency, only 2 of the residents in my class (<20%) went straight through undergrad –> med school.</p>
<p>@WOWMom, did you notice that your two links are somewhat inconsistent/contradictory? The attempt at prognostication in the Duke article was a total failure. :D</p>
<p>@OP, you apply to medical school when you are ready. If you are 15, 20, or 25 years old makes little difference. If you are ready, then go for it. As for the AAMC stats in the link, if you look carefully, you will notice that younger applicants have a higher acceptance rate across all percentiles(as was mentioned by LizzyM in her recent AMA) . This is to be expected since the older applicants frequently have “issues” of some kind (which is why they were late). </p>
<p>BTW, I will be starting medical school this summer. I am 19 years old.</p>
<p>The class of 2017 at least has an average age of 23: [Class</a> Statistics | Johns Hopkins School of Medicine M.D. Admissions](<a href=“MD Program”>MD Program)</p>
<p>You might get a class where the majority didn’t come straight out of UG, but it’s still going to be largely only 1 or 2 years out.</p>
<p>Wow that’s amazing that your already starting Med school, congrats :)</p>
<p>My question, which perhaps you know more about, is do Med schools specifically not favor younger applicants just due to lack of life experiences and decision making? Don’t get me wrong, I believe you that people apply to med school when they are ready, but in a sense do they think that younger applicants might not feel serious about a career in medicine?</p>
<p>I am only going off of what residents and med students i know have told me, just want to know if its’ true</p>
<p>It probably varies by individual more so than school. I’m sure a school’s policy is always to accept the best candidates but if interviewers consciously or unconsciously feel that younger people are less qualified, then they’ll have a tough time. Some people definitely do feel that way. Plumazul either carries herself in a mature fashion or didn’t get interviewed by people who feel that way.</p>
<p>LizzyM offered the following observation. I did not get a chance to ask for proof. ;)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It is understandable that there is a noticeable difference in acceptance rate for applicants over 28 years of age. I think that medical schools have the responsibility to admit students with a reasonably long professional life.</p>
<p>^ Or, who may less likely end up working part time in most of their professional life?</p>
<p>In this sense, it may be “desirable” to recruit those students truly in the middle working class and they more likely have to rely on student loans to get through the med school. This will guarantee that they will “slave” longer in this profession so that they can pay back their student debt.</p>
<p>I know some may say that med schools should only recruit those “who have passions” so they will never get out of this profession even temporarily because they love it so much. This is the ideal case.</p>
<p>The 2012 Census of Actively Practicing US Physicians reported that female and non-white physicians were more likely to practice longer than white, male physicians.</p>
<p>Female and non-white physicians were more likely to practice in primary care specialties and practice in medically under-servered communities.</p>
<p>Interesting results, but a lot of things to think about:</p>
<p>Primary care pays less so do they work longer because they choose/want to or because they need to work longer to retire?</p>
<p>Primary care is less competitive to enter than other specialties, again, is primary care being chosen/desired or forced because they’re unable to place elsewhere? (this wrinkle always bugs me when looking at data about primary care placement stuff. I know that there are lots of people (almost certainly the majority) who want to do primary care, but I hate that primary care is also the easiest thing to do and thus a not negligible proportion of people doing primary care residencies aren’t doing them by choice.)</p>
<p>Women are probably more likely to choose a primary care field as it’s easier to do part time (to raise children - since we’re still not at the point yet where the stay at home/part time dad is fully accepted).</p>
<p>Male physicians have a short lifespan on average.</p>
<p>I once read a book (actually written by a physician, I think) in which he said those in a highly competitive or high pressure specialty (not necessarily in medicine) has some personality (some kind of “negative” Type A?) that could potentially shorten their life. I think the advice from this author is that the parents need to guide such naturally competitive children in a proper way - easy said then done though.</p>
<p>Since women tends to have a longer life on average, shall we encourage female physicians to enter these competitive specialties? LOL.</p>
<p>I learned that OB/GYN, pediatric and family practice are primary care. Do all these 3 specialties tend to have a lower income? How low is their average income? Is their average income (when about 32 yo) still slightly above, say, 130k? If yes and they do not carry heavy debt (and do not live in NYC, SF, Boston, etc), they still could pay back their, say, 150k accumulated debt, right?</p>
<p>Primary care also includes general internal medicine and, in some areas, psychiatry and emergency medicine (as defined by eligibility for state-based PCP loan forgiveness programs).</p>
<p>Oh yeah, the average for PCPs is still over 130k [Medscape:</a> Medscape Access](<a href=“Medscape: Medscape Access”>Medscape: Medscape Access), it’s just much less than ortho. I think generally some of the eligible specialties are no longer considered primary care if the person does a fellowship to sub specialize but I don’t know if that’s a standardized distinction.</p>
<p>I can’t figure out at what point they show 34 (80-85%ile?) but it seemed like the line might have 40 at 99%ile. 23 sounds like grad + gap year.</p>
<p>Older people may be applying but I suspect the only reason they can have any advantage is because they have things during that time to impress adcoms. They show Rhodes scholars, Fulbright scholars, veterans etc (don’t much understand why they would admit lawyers but whatever works).</p>
<p>Hopefully Plum does not have too many parental figures in her classes wherever she ends up. That 10-20% who are 34 + might want to take care of her. :p</p>
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