Fort Worth M.D. School Application Submissions Double For 2021 Academic Year

FORT WORTH, Texas  – Application submissions to attend the TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine for the 2021 academic year doubled in comparison with the 2020 academic year.

There were 8,190 applications submitted to the TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine for the 2021 academic year. That total is double the number of applications the medical school received during the 2020 academic year admissions cycle when application submissions were 4,008, according to Erin Nelson, Psy. D., the Assistant Dean for Admissions at TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine.

Some wondered whether COVID-19 motivated applicants to pursue medicine: “I can only attribute it to our school making it to the national stage and our innovative curriculum and all the other things we take pride in have gained notice around the country,” Dr. Nelson said.

Nationally, the interest in attending medical school for the 2021 academic year saw a huge spike of approximately 18% more applicants per school in comparison to the amount of people who applied to medical school in 2020, according to the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS).

AMCAS processes most application submissions for medical schools in the United States. Prior the 2021 academic year, medical school application submissions had only increased by about 3% year-over-year in the past decade.

“For our numbers doubling 100 percent and not 18 percent, that’s a pretty significant addition to us,” Dr. Nelson said.

Another first for the Fort Worth M.D. school during recruiting for the 2021 academic year was that international students were able to apply. International applicants hailed from Africa, Europe and several other countries.

The medical school also received applications from all 50 U.S. states and Puerto Rico.

“It was really heartening to see our interest not just on a national level, but on a global level,” Dr. Nelson said.

The Fort Worth medical school’s  unique private-public partnership between Texas Christian University and the University of North Texas Health Science Center aims to prepare students to be compassionate physicians, excellent caregivers and prepared to meet the challenges of the rapid advances in medicine.

The TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine opened with a class of 60 students in July 2019. TCU and UNTHSC joined together in July 2015 to form this new allopathic medical school. The Fort Worth medical school’s focus on communication, a first-of-its-kind curriculum and the development of Empathetic Scholars^TM uniquely positions the organization to radically transform medical education, improving care for future generations.

The curriculum is designed to transform medical education. It does this in several ways by incorporating communications training throughout the entire curriculum, pairing students with patients and physicians from their first day in a Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship, world-class simulation and technology and encourage students to be life-long learners capable of critical inquiry and medical information literacy through their scholarly thesis and pursuit.