It's even more difficult to get into med school

LaBreaTarheel
Sat, 11 Dec 2021 03:17:23 +0000

WayOutWestMom:

Unfortunately the early data from NYU shows its grads going into non-primary care fields at the same high rates they did before the free tuition program was introduced. (Probably because they have very high standardized test scores feel they deserve better than “just” primary care.)

Seeing as the first class to receive the tuition waiver for their entire medical school time has yet to graduate, I think it’s a little early to judge NYU’s program. Changing attitudes takes time, and expecting someone who only had to pay 3 years of tuition instead of 4 to leap into primary care is unrealistic.

Certainly, many of the applicants who matriculate at top ranked medical schools may have a research focus or be attracted to the cutting edge of medical practice, which is often in specialty care. What we really need is a cultural change in which it becomes desirable and exciting for our top tier grads to go into primary care.

My own personal internist is an MD/PhD from a top 5 school. He is an amazing doc with a prodigious and very up to date knowledge base not just in his own field but even in many of the specialty fields he interacts with.

What I like about the NYU program is that it is an attempt to get highly competitive docs to have the option of primary care. The situation of primary care slots filling from less competitive schools and scrambling 4th years students who didn’t match in derm has been going on for decades. Things to shake up the status quo are good. Young docs finishing their residency in their young 30s don’t need a mountain of debt dictating their choices.