ALBANY — New York’s 16 medical schools have enrolled 120 more students this fall than last year, including the first classes in a pair of three-year programs that allow students to graduate faster and with less debt.
More than half of the 2,424 new medical students are state residents, nearly half are women and 3 percent are international students, according to Associated Medical Schools of New York. Most programs last four years with annual tuition ranging from $30,000 to $50,000.
Demand for physicians has intensified in New York due to its aging population, rising costs, and state and federal policy changes, association President Jo Wiederhorn said.
A new state marketplace, established in response to a federal mandate, is expected to enroll 1.1 million more New Yorkers in health insurance programs over the next few years, increasing the need for primary care practitioners.
New York University’s School of Medicine has 162 new students, including 16 in its new three-year program who are all offered acceptance into an NYU Langone Medical Center residency program. Their academic year starts six weeks earlier and they spend the summer between the first and second year on a fellowship.
With 168 new students, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons has four who already hold doctoral degrees in biomedical sciences in a new three-year program. They’ll have the same 18-month preclinical training as the others and 16 months of clinical training. Their fourth-year scholarly project will be waived and they’ll be encouraged to pursue an abbreviated residency.
The Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education enrolled 74 students this year for its seven-year program, all state residents coming directly from high school out of 705 applicants. The City College of New York school’s first five years fulfill bachelor’s degree requirements and the pre-clinical medical school curriculum, followed by two years of clinical training at a collaborating medical school.
SUNY Downstate Medical Center enrolled 188 new students, 80 percent from New York, while SUNY Upstate Medical University enrolled 165, 90 percent of whom are state residents.
Albany Medical College reported 143 new medical students from nearly 9,000 applicants, while Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai enrolled 140 students out of more than 5,000 applicants.
Other schools and enrollments for their Class of 2017 were Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, 183 students; Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine, 80 students; New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine, 315; New York Medical College, 200; University of Rochester School of Medicine, 102; Stony Brook University School of Medicine, 124; School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo, 144; Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine, 135; and Weill Cornell Medical College, 101 students.