Mathilde Lacombe

In 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc in all areas of everyone’s lives. It was no different for medical school applicants or medical school admission consulting services. The effects of the pandemic have widespread across all walks of life. 

In fact, the American Medical Association also posted an article summing up some of the major issues that have impacted their admissions process for medical school applicants in the year gone by. 

Here are some of the major effects that we foresee in the future with regard to what to expect while trying to get a place at your med school of choice: 

• The requirement for undergraduate courses – As most undergraduate universities have transitioned to a remote learning format, which involves being online most of the time, they are feeling to give students the high-quality learning experience as through the pre-Coronavirus days. Most students learn differently; while some might thrive at virtual learning, other students might be able to comprehend the material. It is possible to teach lecture-based classes online. However, lab classes may be postponed indefinitely, affecting all pre-med students’ all-around study phase. Research-based courses have shifted to analyzing and studying data that Apple previously collected rather than creating new data for the research, which makes it tougher for them to gather the right kind of research material needed. 
• The canceled MCAT-as the future class of 2025 has a huge hurdle placed in front of them, which is the cancellation of MCAT, One of the most important academic metrics required by school committees to judge students on the basis of their studies and months of preparation to get into a school of their choice. This directly results in the best medical school admission consulting services business as they will also be unsure about the admission process and have to figure out exactly the new norms needed for students to get through their interviews.
• The popularity of gap year – as more and more applicants are denied admissions through this year; It is becoming increasingly popular for students to take a gap year to help boost the medical resume before re-applying for the next cycle. This can cause the timeline of graduates per year to fluctuate.  
• The dent caused in the interview process- As everyone knows, the interview process is one of the final steps and the most important part of getting accepted into one’s dream school. It encompasses meeting professors speaking with them, and visiting the campus prior to the admission finalization. All these traditional ways of doing so have now shifted to the virtual format, which is not ideal but still works. However, with more intricate processes being introduced to the interview process, such as colleges using multiple mini interview sessions, students could move from room to room to a new interviewers station. This has become tougher on the admissions process in this pandemic.
• The impact will have on fourth-year medical students- the USA was already experiencing a shortage of physicians in the past few years as the previous generations of doctors and nurses are beginning to retire. Now, as medical schools have students who are on track to graduate this year, this interesting predicament caused by the coronavirus is pushing up the graduation date and causing an issue with the release of a new stream of doctors into society.

There is no telling if all of these factors could affect in the coming year wherein students will be more or less interested in applying to medical school. This will, in turn, affect Medical School Consulting Services as well.