By Monday’s deadline, nearly 6,400 prospective medical students had applied to enter the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine.
Usually the school receives about 4,000 applications.
Dean Lee Learman said more people are recognizing the medical school in Roanoke as a place for “systems-minded scientist physicians.”
“In addition, our continued success in matching all of our graduates to top-choice residency programs is attractive to prospective students,” he said.
The school typically interviews about 280 of the applicants.
VTC will accept 49 students into its Class of 2025. Earlier this year, it raised class sizes from the previous 42.
The school opened to its first class 10 years ago as a public-private partnership between Carilion Clinic and Virginia Tech. It is now a college of Virginia Tech. Students are required to complete research projects.
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The school said in a news release that its applications were up 48%, while medical school applications nationwide are up this year by about 17%. During the last decade the increase in applications for U.S. medical schools has averaged less than 3% each year.
“There are a few reasons why more people may be applying to medical school this year: the pandemic may have increased a desire to pursue medicine and give back in this time of need; students may have more time to devote to medical school applications with virtual classes and employment; and it is a relatively inexpensive year to apply to medical school because the vast majority of interviews — like ours — have moved to virtual, saving travel expenses,” said Melanie Prusakowski, associate dean for admissions.
The admissions team has held four rounds of interviews and has two more scheduled before selecting the class that will begin in July.