Medical students at U. hope to fill physician shortage

By Sandra Olney

February 6th, 2015 @ 8:32am

SALT LAKE CITY Utah has a serious shortage of doctors. One prescription for change: expand the class size and the number of students who qualify for in-state tuition at the University of Utah School of Medicine. So far, the healthy boost in enrollment and in those qualifying for a tuition break seems to be working.

Each spring, Dr. Ben Chan and his admissions team assemble a class of students who will become the doctors of the future. "I am very optimistic that if we keep our best students here, they'll end up staying here and practicing here," he said.

Chan has had no trouble convincing students who have spent time in Utah to stay here for medical school. Susan Folsom grew up in Oregon and graduated undergrad from BYU. Now, she is in her second year of medical school at the U. of U.

"Many of us come from a background that's very altruistic. We really want to be here. We're willing to go through the hard things," Folsom said.

Some of the hard things students must deal with include paying out-of-state tuition and getting into a medical school like the U. of U.'s with a limited number of positions. "We have many more qualified applicants than we do positions, and so I'm excited to admit a class of 122," Chan said.

He is overseeing a growth spurt in admissions to the U.'s School of Medicine, from 82 students in 2012 to 122 this fall. Each year, more than 80 percent of those coveted spots go to students with strong ties to Utah. Alex Woodcock is a first-year medical student.

"I've always been a Western girl at heart. I love being in the mountains; my family lives 30 minutes away in Park City," she said.

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Medical students at U. of U. hope to fill physician shortage