<p>It looks as if there may be a new medical school at UT-Austin. They have $250 million pledged and a likely site in mind.</p>
<p>[The</a> Doctors (Could Be) In Austin… | The Alcalde](<a href=“http://alcalde.texasexes.org/2012/09/the-doctors-could-be-in-austin/]The”>The Doctors (Could Be) In Austin… | The Alcalde)</p>
<p>^ there’s a few more opening up elsewhere.</p>
<p>What’s wrong with the economist? It’s a legit publication that a lot of professionals, including those working at the Fed, read.</p>
<p>I also don’t get why parents and premeds are defending the AMA. It’s common knowledge that it’s a monopoly. This is one reason why physician salaries in the US are much higher than those in other countries (not to mention it is an undergrad program in other countries). Many salaries are not keeping up with inflation, not just physician salaries, but objectively speaking ~400k is extremely highly compensated if you look per hour for what a lot of specialists do. And there are plenty of people with PhDs in the hard sciences making far less in arguably more conceptually difficult fields even though they went to grad school for 5-6 years. So stop whining about a ~400k salary; you can easily pay off your 350k loans off that. And if you make 180k, you should have studied harder for the Step 1.</p>
<p>Brian:</p>
<p>Just like a Union, yes the AMA is a political force. But how can it be a “monopoly” when, as one of the articles that you posted clearly states, there are plenty of other medical associations. If you google dictionary.com and then the word monopoly, you’ll see that it don’t fit.</p>
<p>Again, less than half of practicing physicians are members of the AMA. If that is monopoly-like power, the leaders of the AMA are woefully inadequate. :D</p>
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<p>Source, please?</p>
<p>A monopoly typically refers to an institution that makes a barrier to entry into the industry. The economist refers to it as a de facto monopoly in that the AMA restricts the distribution of licenses; I trust the economist more than posters here.</p>
<p>And if you want me to link sources, would you mind reading them before arguing? It’s in the first line of the article I linked you.</p>
<p>Brian. Who are you? You come in here like a bull in a china shop. Tell us how you came to be involved in pre-med and med school issues. Show us your bona fides. You appear to know very little about the rigors of the app and med school and residency process and value it even less. So, why the interest ?</p>
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[The</a> Medical Cartel: Why are MD Salaries So High?](<a href=“Wall Street Pit - Stock Market, Technology, Science”>The Medical Cartel: Why are MD Salaries So High? - Wall Street Pit)</p>
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<p>No doubt, but the question is who caused it?</p>
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<p>Friedman’s book is a classic, and dated 1962 (And you’ll note I already concurred that the AMA wielded tremendous power – a generation ago.)</p>
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<p>Love to see a true source on this – other than opinion pieces – which verifies the bolded part. (Nothing wrong with opinion pieces & blogs – we all have opinions, but data they are not.) </p>
<p>Have you ever read of ONE application for a med school in the past decade+ that the AMA has tried to block? Or that the LCME has turned down, for no apparent reason? Have you ever read of the AMA lobbying state universities to NOT open/expand a local med school?</p>
<p>Unlike law schools, which are cash cows for Universities, and have been easily approved, med schools are very expensive to operate.</p>
<p>PS - I for one am not defending the AMA. I’m just asking for any shred of pure evidence that the AMA has the ability to restrict the growth of med schools. </p>
<p>(Restricting residency slots, perhaps, since those are federally-funded and Congress has been known to be swayed by lobbyists, but how does the AMA convince colleges to not build/expand a med school?)</p>
<p>To the contrary, when UC Riverside wanted to build its own med school, the California Medical Association was an early supporter. The CMA also publicly supports building a new med school at UC Merced.</p>
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It seems he graduated from college only a few years ago and likely with some major which is marketable immediately after college.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/14830599-post24.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/14830599-post24.html</a></p>
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<p>Glad somebody finally asked that, he came in here so confrontational. Doesn’t he know for the most part that this forum is all snowflakes and puppies? :)</p>
<p>lol. Lotta good it did me. 
And to be accurate, Kristin asked him first.</p>
<p>Brian = “applied math” at Cal Berkeley. Grad school at U-Chicago. Although, personally I don’t think it relevant since anyone is entitled to their (fact-free) opinion. :D</p>
<p>Somebody needs to tell somebody that “applied math” and all his/her statistics doesn’t mean squat to medschool admissions. That is verified several times over from students on this board.</p>
<p>Not sure what his agenda is but he is also trying to stir the pot on other threads.</p>
<p>I just can’t imagine why I’d be over on the ____ forum dissing ____ers as not being the sharpest crayons in the box and spreading the idea that anyone with a pulse qualifies. Unless I was trying out a comedy routine. ;)</p>
<p>AMA discussion aside, I had to respond.</p>
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<p>You may find this hard to believe but not everyone is jonesing for a ROAD residency and regardless of debt or Step 1 score, some are more interested in the lesser paid specialties. They do so because they feel a real connection to the work. You may come to understand this (and be grateful) when you are older and when/if your internist picks up on a significant issue or an obstetric specialist helps your wife through a difficult pregnancy with the result being a healthy baby. Get over yourself.</p>
<p>also, the argument goes both ways. You can’t complain that physicians are overcompensated and then say that those who are on the lower end are whiners and just “should have studied harder.” Brian could have studied harder and been a doctor earning the overcompensation…oh, brian never wanted to be a doctor, see elleneast’s point.</p>
<p>Regarding “you should have studied harder for the Step 1.”, I think a majority of the students at DS’s school have already studied pretty hard (at least harder than when they were premeds.) Quite many of them (including DS) even do not have the “top earning” specialty in their goal. (I believe at one time, DS said as long as his income after residency is 120K a year and is capable of paying back his loans slowly over several decades, he thinks it is good enough.)</p>
<p>Everything is relative. At the med school level, most students there likely have been working quite hard in their whole life. During the application cycle, DS expressed the desire of going to a med school where the students do not need to “beat” his fellow students on the daily basis (i.e., no preclinical grades.) He said he had been pretty tired of the need of beating his peers since high school. (This does not mean that he would slack off. As far as we know, he is far from slacking off these days, so are most of his fellow students.)</p>
<p>It’s funny how a lot of the posters responding are mothers who are angry that I listed a med school their child attends as “easy to get into.” I didn’t compile the list of the easiest schools to get into, merely copied them from more knowledgeable sources, and USNews provided the statistics. The pdf file also shows that a lot of unqualified applicants apply to med school. If you have a 30% chance of getting in with an early 3.0s GPA, it’s not unrealistic at all to get into med school and pre-meds should know this instead of thinking it’s impossible. Shouldn’t we be encouraging college students instead of scaring them away? Man, I sure hope my parents aren’t this invested in protecting their egos.</p>
<p>As for family medicine, some people want to be family doctors, but for the most part med students shun working in primary care. Probably something to do with the lower pay, dealing with patients all the time, and paperwork.</p>
<p>Again, Brian. What is your interest in pre-med/med school topics? </p>
<p>BTW, the AAMC charts you posted are old news around here. You didn’t discover them. And to read them correctly you have to consider that …yup. “Some kids will get in with lower stats.” You just ain’t gonna be one of them. Like UG, many of those kids have something you don’t have and can’t get. They are in early admission programs or are URM or have done a post-bacc or have worked at the med school for 7 years or have a PhD. or an Olympic medal. I have always felt that you can get a more realistic look when you drop the bottom 25% and re-center. </p>
<p>This process is far more nuanced than you realize. </p>
<p>And, FWIW, since I know the back story on most of these posters,
, this is about as accurate as many of your other assertions about the med school applications and med students.
;)</p>
<p>Sign me, Proud Parent of a Dull Crayola</p>
<p>I know I’m just one data point and I (obviously) only attend one medical school, but primary care fields are quite popular with graduates from my school. And I think it’s a little entertaining that “dealing with patients all the time” was lumped in with paperwork and low pay, as if patient care were a thorn in some clinician’s side. </p>
<p>Call me crazy, but isn’t…caring for patients the primary purpose of entering medicine?</p>
<p>How many times have you applied?</p>