Check Out the AAMC Virtual Medical School Fair

The AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) will be holding a live informational fair Wednesday, October 29 and Thursday, October 30. There will be sessions with staff from medical schools, postbac programs, and the AAMC. Registering also affords you 15% off a one- or two-year subscription to the Medical School Admissions Requirements (MSAR®) website.

You can register here. I offer individually-tailored, one-on-one assistance for pre-meds and candidates applying to postbaccalaureate programs, but there's no downside to hearing more general tips from the AAMC itself.

Making Medical School Tuition-Free is Not Encouraging More Doctors to Enter Primary Care Fields

In 2018, when Kenneth and Elaine Langone generously donated $100 million so students could attend NYU Medical School tuition-free, the philanthropists' main goal was to encourage more graduating physicians to enter primary care fields.

However, by 2024, the number of NYU graduating medical students who went into primary care was about the same as it was in 2017. Furthermore, in the interim, the number of African-American students had declined – although the number of Latinos had grown slightly. Additionally, at least in the first two years of the experiment, the percentage of incoming matriculants categorized as "financially disadvantaged" had fallen from 12% to 3%. One thing that had improved was NYU's rankings and reputation. (See this well-written Atlantic article by Rose Horowitch for a deeper dive into the query.)

Last year Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine in New Jersey launched a Primary Care Scholars Program to tweak the calculus. After being admitted, medical students may apply to the program if they commit to pediatrics, family medicine, general internal medicine, or geriatrics. The program covers a 50% tuition scholarship during the three-year MD track, $7500 as a relocation grant, and $2500 monthly for living expenses. The medical school plans to offer 15 spots next year. Here's a piece on the program and its potential future expansion.

I Highly Recommend this Paid, Summer Opportunity

I was an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Mass Media Science Fellow in 1995 (during medical school). The program was truly fantastic and life-altering.

Applications for this year's fellowship are already open and will remain so through January 1, 2026. The scholarship is a 10-week summer program that places science, engineering, and math undergraduate and graduate students at media organizations across the nation - outlets like NPR, the Los Angeles Times, and WIRED. I worked at the Oregonian in Portland and had a tremendous time, learning how to write effectively and edit. I also gained an appreciation for the immense public health influence journalists can have. 

Here are the anticipated dates for this cycle:
Application window: October 1, 2025 - January 1, 2026
Fellowship: June 3, 2026 - August 18, 2026
Orientation in DC: June 3 - 5, 2026
Dates onsite: June 8 - August 14, 2026
Wrap-up in DC: August 17 - 18, 2026

Steep Fees for H-1B Visas Would be Devastating for International Medical Graduates, the Healthcare Profession, and Patients as a Whole

The US administration recently implemented a $100,000 fee for initial applications for H-1B visas – to be paid by prospective employers. The American Medical Association is lobbying for an exemption for doctors. Currently, new physicians from international locations represent one in six medical residents and fellows at US teaching hospitals, approximately 15,500 doctors in 2024. See this piece by Roni Caryn Rabin from the New York Times that covers the panic about and resistance to the policy's application to physicians and nurses.