Only 300 students can enroll in the College of Medicine each year. However, more than 7,000 individuals applied to the school in 2006, an all-time high from the 4,000 students who usually apply in past years, said Jim Hall, associate dean for student affairs and the Medical Scholars Program.

Although there are no immediate plans to increase the college’s enrollment, Hall said he thinks the University is looking into this possibility.

This increase in medical school applicants and enrollments has been a trend across the country, according to a report released by the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Almost 17,800 students enrolled in medical schools this year, a 2.3 percent increase since 2006, the report said.

Last year the association asked medical schools to increase enrollment by at least 30 percent by 2015 so there would be enough doctors to replace the retiring baby boomer generation and to care for the growing population, said Dr. Gwen Garrison, assistant vice president of medical school student and applicant studies for the association.

“A number of states have identified physician shortages and have begun planning to increase enrollment in order to meet future needs,” Garrison said.

This goal may be difficult to achieve because the schools will need additional lab space, clinical clerkships and funding, she added.

“(Medical schools) have indicated to us that they are on pace to achieve a 17 percent increase,” Garrison said. “We are hoping that as more states and legislation provide funding and adequate resources, we will be able to reach that goal.”

John Zic, associate dean of admissions for the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, said the school has not increased enrollment but plans to begin to slowly over the next five years.

“I think training more young physicians to take care of the growing older population will be very important and will certainly benefit American society,” Zic said. “In some regions of the country, access is limited because there are few physicians available.”

The report also said this year’s applicant pool included more students from ethnic minorities. The number of black male applicants increased by 9.2 percent, while the number admitted and enrolled increased by 5.3 percent.

David Owen, director of admissions and financial aid at the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago, has noticed this increase and believes it will benefit society.

“The culture we live in is increasingly diverse in terms of its ethnicity, race, religion and sexual orientation,” Owen said. “Making medical students aware of people with different backgrounds and lifestyles will help them become better and more understanding physicians.”

In addition to increasing enrollment, the number of medical school applicants has risen 8.2 percent since last year to more than 42,300 applications, according to the report.

“It’s always nice to have more applicants to choose from,” Hall said. “Hopefully if we’re doing a good job of making those choices, we’ll be producing better physicians for the country.”

Because of the increase in applicants at medical schools, some have raised admittance requirements.

Zic said Vanderbilt received 4,780 applications last year to fill 104 spots and expects the number of applicants to increase this year.

“We’ve become more focused on looking at the applicants in a holistic fashion and asking ourselves if this particular applicant has the potential to be a future leader, which is one of our missions,” Zic said. “Unfortunately this means that sometimes we would decline to offer a very strong student a spot in our class.”

Giselle Lara is a junior in LAS considering medical school. Although she said the competition is tough, she believes that professors do a good job preparing students for the competitiveness of medical school. “I guess that just makes it more worth it,” Lara said. “At the end of the day, I know I’m going to have worked really hard for what I get.”