The medical school applicant pool from Alaska: implications for the development of medical education in the state

Abstract

Several recent physician workforce reports in Alaska have called for a rapid increase in the number of state-supported medical school positions to between 30 and 50 new students per year, preferably through WWAMI - Alaska's Medical School. Here we compare applicant and matriculant data for Alaska WWAMI and for Alaskans applying to all U.S. allopathic medical schools to national applicant and matriculant trends gathered from databases of the Association of American Medical Colleges. The assessment demonstrates that 1) changes in the number of Alaska WWAMI applicants parallels changes in the number of Alaskans applying to all U.S. medical schools, but these do not track changes in the national applicant pool, 2) historical records suggest that a fundamental change is needed to provide an applicant pool to support a class size of 50 within the next decade, 3) smaller states with independent, four-year medical schools generate more medical school applicants per capita than Alaska.