"When the job market is strong, there is atendency to not necessarily pursue professionalcareers right away," he said.

House pre-med tutors emphasized that morestudents are deciding to take time off beforeattending medical school. "In the last year, morestudents have been coming to me for advice abouthow to spend one to two post graduate years beforeapplying to medical school," Michelson said. "I'malso hearing more students taking a year or twoafter college to work before applying."

Seniors who have decided to take time offbefore applying to medical school said that theywanted the opportunity to explore other fields andmake sure that they were serious about medicinebefore committing themselves.

David D. Kuo '99, a biology and computerscience concentrator who had planned to attendmedical school since junior high school, is nowplanning to work while he decides whether to hereally wants to attend medical school.

"I decided that I wasn't ready to go to medicalschool right after graduation. I've decided to gointo the recruiting loop and work for a couple ofyears, and then hopefully I'll be able to make afinal decision after that," he said.

Kathrine D. Nash '99, a pre-med history andscience concentrator, also decided not to applythis year to make sure that she wants to entermedicine.

"I began questioning what I wanted to devotethe rest of my life to and I wasn't one hundredpercent sure it was medicine. It's a big timecommitment, it's a big financial commitment, [and]I'm going to take some time off before decidedwhether I want to go for sure," she said.

Other factors cited in the AAMC press releaseinclude the perceived impact of managed care andthe loss of physician autonomy, as well as thecontinued impact of affirmative action rollbacks