Med School Rejections Worry College Officials

A survey of University officials who advise medical school candidates reveals considerable concern over the remarkably high number of applicants this year who have not been accepted at any medical school this year.

Roughly 25 pre-medical students have received nothing but rejections, Dr. Curtis Prout, chief of Medicine to the University Health Services, said.

This indicates that approximately 13 per cent of those applying have not found any school to accept them. This percentage is based on an estimated 190 Harvard students who applied to medical school this year, according to Richard G. King, director of the Office for Graduate and Career Plans.

As early as Feb. 20, King was sufficiently concerned with the problem to ask each Allston Burr Senior Tutor for comments on the unsuccessful medical school applicants in his House.

A certain number of Harvard students fail to get into medical school every year, although the number this year exceeds the average. But what particularly worries King and others concerned with the problem is that the least qualified students are not necessarily the ones being rejected.

"This year is the first time that qualified students have not found a place," said King. Since most medical schools set their application deadlines on or before March first, a large majority of applicants have received final word from the schools.

Applicants Increase

The increase in rejections results, in part, from an increase in applicants from Harvard and the nation. The figure of 190 Harvard applicants shows a marked rise over an approximate average of 160 during the past few years.

King suspects that the number of students applying from the Class of 1964 is "the largest in recent years," although concrete information will not be available until his office publishes its report on the graduating class.

In the nation, the number of applicants this year is estimated at 19,500, or 23 per cent more than in 1962, according to data issued by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).

Many pre-medical advisors have been shocked to realize that instead of attracting students to medical school, their task has suddenly become getting them accepted.

"Conditions are anything but grim," despite the number of rejections issued this year to Harvard students, according to Dr. Daniel H. Funkenstein, assistant professor of Psychiatry and member of the Admissions Committee to the Harvard Medical School. It is generally felt that the Class of 1964 contains exceptionally good medical school candidates. This year, Harvard Med accepted 48 Harvard seniors for a class of 114, compared to last year's figure of 24 acceptances.

Prout, King, Funkenstein, and Dean von Stade are jointly seeking steps to reduce the number of unsuccessful applicants. In addition to the counselling services of Prout and Funkenstein, who advise rejected candidates about further plans, several studies are being planned to supply needed information.

* King is discussing with his staff the advisability of immediately conducting a study to assess the situation.

* Edward T. Wilcox, director of Advanced Standing, is examining the various requirements of state licensing boards. Many states impose requirements which are not stated in the AAMC's Admission Requirements of American Medical Colleges, the bible of the pre-med student.

* It has been decided that this year the Office for Graduate and Career Plans will send out a much more elaborate questionnaire than in the past to the graduating class. The additional questions will include which medical schools accepted the student, which rejected him, and which offered him financial aid.

In addition, Dr. Funkenstein has offered to visit each House sometime in the spring and give a talk about the unsuccessful applicants