AUGUSTA, Ga. – A record number of potential first-year students applied to the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Health Sciences University this year.
Applications to MCG are up 10 percent over last year, surpassing the national average increase of around 3 percent, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. A total of 2,384 students applied to MCG for one of 230 freshman slots available. Last year 2,167 students applied.
“This terrific news is a compliment to our university’s reputation, not only in our state but across the country,” said MCG Dean Peter Buckley. “Recruitment is an important part of ensuring that we admit the best and brightest students possible, and that in doing so, we continue to produce the best doctors for Georgia and address the country’s critical physician shortage.”
It’s a shortage that continues to grow, according to data released by the AAMC this month. In its 2011 State Workforce Data, Georgia ranked 41st in active physicians per capita and 45th among primary care physicians.
MCG admits 190 students at its Augusta campus and 40 at the GHSU/UGA Medical Partnership in Athens each year – making the medical school the sixth-largest class in the nation. The medical school is also expanding across the state with clinical campuses in Albany and Savannah, and a clinical campus in Rome set to open in 2013.
“As we increase our class size, we are not trading quantity for quality,” Buckley said. “We continue to attract great students who are highly competitive nationally, both in their test scores and in their leadership activities.”
Last year’s freshman class averaged 3.7 on a 4.0 grade point average scale and a mean score of 30.3 out of a possible 45 on the Medical College Admissions Test.
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