Medical School Applications Down In National Trend

Preliminary estimates show that for the fourth connective year, applications to the Harvard Medical School declined but the dip was smaller then in previous years and the downward trend appears to be leveling off, Harvard officials said yesterday.

The decline follows a national trend of falling medical school applications since 1974. At Harvard the peak came later, in 1979, when close to 4000 people applied.

Admissions Officer Tania B. Friedman said yesterday applications have dropped off about 200 per year since 1979, but this fall it appears that only 25-50 fewer people applied for the 165 slots. Last year the Med School received 3222 applications.

Applications closed last month, but all will not be processed for another week and a half, she said.

Figures released last week by the Association of American Medical Colleges show that nationally 1.5 percent fewer people applied to medical schools in 1982.

"People feel that with the baby boom having gone by, things are just normalizing. How much funding has to do with it we don't know," Friedman said, explaining the decline in aspiring doctors.

Along with declining enrollments, the number of students admitted to medical schools this fall will also fall for the second consecutive year. Citing reductions in government funding and a federal study released early this year which predicted an impending surplus of doctors, seven medical schools have decided to decrease their enrollment by at least five students.