Applications to medical schools are falling

Applications to medical schools in the United States have fallen by a fifth in the past four years, new figures from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) show. US medical schools had 37 137 applicants for the 16 303 places available for entry in 2000, a fall of 3.6% from last year.

UK medical school applications also began to fall despite the government's pledge to create 1000 additional student places for medicine. Figures from the UK's Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) show that in the UK there were 10 972 applicants for the 5454 places available, falling from 12 078 applicants in 1997. Figures just released by the service show that there has been a 3.2% drop in applications for medicine compared with the same time last year, similar to American figures. The complete figures for the UK 2001 entry will not be available until late next year.