![]() And it causes concerns for admissions deans who will be reviewing applications that won’t be as complete as in previous years.”Īdmissions officials aren’t terribly concerned about 2020 applicants who already went through most of the process before the pandemic hit, but instead are worried about the many essential steps in the 2021 application cycle. “This causes significant anxiety for students who need information from schools, which all have their own policies. “There are so many unknowns now,” says Geoffrey Young, PhD, AAMC senior director for student affairs and programs. And medical schools face their own issues as they try to build classes that will serve their missions and the nation’s need for talented future physicians. “My dad’s unemployed, and there are three other kids back home.”Īpplying to medical school is always time-consuming and stress-inducing - in addition to the MCAT exam, there are essays to write, recommendations to accumulate, interviews to ace, and more - but the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown many new obstacles into the paths of thousands of aspiring doctors. “I have to finance everything myself,” she explains. “I can’t go spending all the money I've saved for applications unless I’m sure I have a high chance of getting in.” Even as an undergrad at Virginia Commonwealth University, Pinchbeck worked full-time. “I need to take the MCAT again, and I'm really hoping they won’t cancel more test dates,” she says. Her former job in a Phoenix, Arizona, hospital made it tough to squeeze in study time, and she didn’t score as well as she wanted the first time she took the test. While preparing for the MCAT ® exam, 2018 college graduate Lauren Pinchbeck has been working 40-hour weeks as a medical scribe to squirrel away money to apply to medical school. Last year, the program provided $9.1 million in assistance. In addition, recognizing that applicants’ current financial situation would not be reflected in 2019 tax returns, the Fee Assistance Program team is reaching out to previously denied applicants to determine if they might now qualify.Īll eligible applicants receive benefits worth more than $2,000, including a reduced MCAT exam registration fee and access to all online MCAT Official Preparation materials, and they can have AMCAS send applications to 20 medical schools for free. A family of four, for example, would now qualify with an income of $103,000 rather than $77,250. The changes, which went into effect on April 20, shift eligibility from 300% of the federal poverty level to 400%, based on 2019 tax returns. This year, in response to the financial toll inflicted on so many by the COVID-19 pandemic, the program has greatly expanded its eligibility requirements. Each year, thousands of applicants who wouldn’t be able to afford to apply to medical school receive aid from the AAMC Fee Assistance Program.
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