NEWS University sees steady enrollment, increased minority representation by Maddy Weingast | Nov 03 2014 | 11/03/14 12:41am

The Association of American Medical Colleges announced that medical school enrollment numbers have reached record highs, with a total of 20,343 students enrolled in medical colleges this fall. Along with the record increase of 1.4 percent, the number of underrepresented minorities rose as well, with Latinos increasing by 1.8 percent and African Americans by 1.1 percent.

Enrollment figures at the University have remained relatively constant, Assoc. Medicine Prof. John Densmore said.

Our enrollment numbers are stable, as we have a fixed class size, Densmore said in an email.

Densmore said the University has seen a significant increase in underrepresented minorities enrolling during the past five years.

For this years class, the University received 4,804 applications. The Medical School currently has 620 students enrolled. According to the AAMC, nationally, first time applicants reached 36,697 in 2014 an increase of 2.7 percent from last year. The total number of applicants applying reached 49,480, marking a 3.1 percent increase from last year.

The number of first-time female applicants increased nationally by 581 3.3 percent since 2013, while the number of Hispanics/Latinos attending medical school rose by 1.8 percent to 1,859 enrollees. The University Medical Schools student body currently is 51 percent women and 28 percent identify as minorities typically underrepresented in medicine.

The AAMC notes that the increase can be in part attributed to the creation of new medical schools as well as existing schools efforts to expand their class sizes in reaction to the AAMCs call in 2006 for a 30 percent increase to avert future doctor shortages.

Originally posted here:

Medical schools see uptick in enrollments