Why Students Are Refused

Dr. Funkenstein has since interviewed these students and has formulated several reasons why some students are not admitted to medical schools.

One reason is the failure to apply to medical schools where students have a reasonable chance of acceptance. Admissions directors unanimously delight in saying that all medical schools in the United States are Grade A. Nevertheless, as any student knows, there is more than one way to get an A, and some schools are naturally more reknown than others.

Prestige schools are understandably a desirable goal. After all, prestige is but a measure of what the world has learned about an institution.

But for those interested in prestige, a much more important factor to a medical career is the hospital in which a doctor takes his residency. As a matter of fact, in order to advance in the academic branched of medicine, a doctor needs to have taken his residency in a University hospital. Anyone who does well in any medical school has reasonable hopes for such a residency. If a graduate has done poorly in a prestige school, he is not apt to gain such a residency.

Almost all Harvard premedical students want to go to Harvard, Columbia, or Cornell. Johns Hopkins, Yale, Penn, Western Reserve, and Rochester are strong second choices. With the burgeoning number of applicants, it is simply not possible for most premedical students to attend a medical school among their first choices. Today's snob might not get to be tomorrow's doctor.

The obvious course to take is to apply also to schools other than those with ten or more topnotch requests for one place. Many state schools, particularly in the Mid-West, Far West, Rocky Mountain Region, of the South, give preference to students in their states or areas. The geographical factor may be noted in the booklet Admission Requirements for American Medical Colleges.

A second reason for medical