Undergraduate medical education.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Health Workforce Statistics

Background:

• In the 1984-1985 academic year, US medical schools faced significant applicant numbers and enrollment figures.
• Understanding the demographics and statistics of medical school admissions and enrollment is crucial for assessing the healthcare workforce pipeline.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present key statistics on US medical school applicants, admissions, enrollment, and faculty for the 1984-1985 academic year.
• To provide data on student demographics, including gender and minority representation, and faculty numbers.

Main Methods:

• Data compilation from US medical schools for the 1984-1985 academic year.
• Analysis of applicant numbers, acceptance rates, first-year enrollment, total enrollment, graduate numbers, and faculty counts.

Main Results:

• 35,944 applicants applied, with 17,194 accepted and 16,992 enrolled (16,459 first-time enrollees, a decrease of 113 from the prior year).
• Total enrollment was 67,090 students across 127 schools, with 31.7% women. Minority enrollment was 15.7% (5.5% black, non-Hispanic).
• Medical schools had 58,767 full-time faculty and 123,002 part-time/volunteer faculty. The average MD curriculum is 153 weeks.

Conclusions:

• The 1984-1985 data reflects a stable yet slightly declining trend in new medical student enrollment.
• The statistics highlight the composition of the medical student body and faculty, indicating significant representation of women and minority groups.