Med School Keeps Class Size Steady

As medical schools across the nation set records for first-year enrollment, Harvard and other Ivies are holding out.

According to figures released last week by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), a record-breaking 17,759 students enrolled in medical school this fall, a 2.3 percent increase from last year.

A study conducted in 2005 by the U.S. Council on Graduate Medical Education indicated that the nation faces a deficit of around 85,000 physicians, or roughly 10 percent of the workforce, by 2020.

In 2006, the AAMC recommended a 30 percent increase in medical school enrollment by 2015 to plug the gap and 77 percent of medical schools have increased their class size in the past five years.

But medical schools at Harvard and other Ivy League universities are keeping their class sizes steady, saying that any changes they make would be insufficient in addressing the problem.

Harvard’s class size has not grown for over 25 years, according to former Harvard Medical School (HMS) Dean Joseph B. Martin’s 2005 Commencement address.

Jules L. Dienstag, the dean for medical education at HMS, said that the school will keep its class size at 165 and does not have the capacity to expand.

“The mission of HMS is to train leaders in medicine, and our traditional classes, even if expanded slightly, would not contribute perceptibly to reducing the physician shortage,” Dienstag said.

He emphasized alternative strategies for coping with the shortage, including the training of more nurse practitioners and physicians’ assistants.

In addition, HMS Director of Admissions Joanne M. McEvoy said that at 165, Harvard’s entering class is bigger than the size of most of the medical schools that have recently expanded.

Officials at Columbia University, Yale University, and Dartmouth University said their institutions have not expanded their capacity either.