The Gender Gap in Medical School Enrollments Has Widened in Recent Years

The Association of American Medical Colleges recently released data on applicants and first-time enrollments at U.S. medical schools for 2012. There were 15,953 women who applied to medical school this year. Women made up 47.2 percent of all medical school applicants. While the number of women applicants remained exactly the same from a year ago, the number of male applicants to medical school increased by 6.7 percent.

Over the past decade, the number of women applying to medical school increased by 26.1 percent. For men, the number of applicants increased by 45.6 percent. From 2002 to 2007 there were more women applicants to medical school than male applicants. Since that time, there have been more men than women.

Since 2002 there has always been more men than women among first-time enrollees in U.S. medical schools. But during the 2002-04 period, the gender gap was very small. Since that time the gender gap in first-time enrollments has increased. In 2012, there were 9,064 women who enrolled in medical school for the first time. In contrast, there were 10,453 men. Women were 49.6 percent of all new medical school students in 2003 but only 46.4 percent in 2012.