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Common Reasons Students Leave Medical School
One of the biggest reasons is trying to fulfill someone else's dream.
If you aren鈥檛 sure, you shouldn鈥檛 attend. Try something else that you might prefer.
The cost, emotionally and financially, is great, and dropping out doesn鈥檛 come
without disappointing yourself or others.
Students who enter Caribbean medical school have excelled in college courses in
the sciences and other subjects, and are studying to work in a highly respected
field with great personal rewards in the professional experience of being a
physician. The income of doctors varies by specialty, but is generous by most
measures. Why would someone want to leave med school?
Students entering med school to fulfill someone else鈥檚 dreams may encounter
setbacks. Not every med student will become a doctor. Although not a frequent
problem, about 4% of U.S. med students who are not in a combined degree
program do not graduate within six years of starting med school, according to an
October 2018 report by the Association of American Medical Colleges.
That report noted that 3.3% of medical school students dropped out over a 20-
year period from 1993-1994 through 2012-2013. By the end of the fourth year,
81.6% to 84.3% of students graduated. By the end of the sixth year, the
graduation rate was 95.9% for those not in combined degree programs.
For the years 2003-2004 through 2012-2013 combined, a dual bachelor's degree
and M.D. had the highest attrition rate at 4.8%. M.D. combined with MBA degrees
had the lowest attrition at 0.8%. Students in the M.D.- Ph.D. programs graduated
at a 93.5% rate by the 10-year mark.
Roughly half to two-thirds of those who left Caribbean medical school did so for
nonacademic reasons. This was not an inability to handle the material, as
admissions committees in the U.S. do not accept candidates they believe will fail to become doctors.