I hope it is clear to anyone reading this blog that this is a terrible waste of human capital.
If it becomes widely known that you need to spend $320,000 on four years of medical school just to compete for a shot at a residency, the ‘best and brightest’ will take one look at that, say “No thank you” and re-orient to careers that do not subject them to an inordinate degree of personal and professional risk. Medical students will then be picked from 1) the truly wealthy, 2) the uninformed, and 3) the desperate, looking for a lottery ticket.
I am mentoring a young physician who falls into that gap and has been unable to secure an internship. Once upon a time, this physician would have slid readily into a less competitive specialty – pediatrics, family practice, etc… But now, their ability to practice medicine in the future is really in jeopardy. This is a bright person with an ivy-league background and a winning personality, but coming from a lower-tier medical school. Their dream of being a physician is at risk of becoming a nightmare. And the terrible thing is that this individual’s story is not a fluke any more. The terrible state of Graduate Medical Education (GME) in the United States needs to be addressed.
P.S. Any program directors needing to fill a slot with a great intern, contact me.