Medical schools across the country are reporting surges in applications. The COVID-19 pandemic has made an impact during the 2021-2022 cycle.

Prospective students are looking to join medical students like Lisa Anakwenze. Anakwenze is a first year medical student at the University of Louisville (UofL) School of Medicine. She thinks the heroism of frontline healthcare workers during the pandemic might’ve inspired more people to apply.

“Applying to medical schools is an insanely tough process, but I think that a lot of people are motivated about what was going on in the pandemic,” said Anakwenze.

Since UofL's School of Medicine is a state school, about 75% of the class is from Kentucky. Dr. Stephen Wheeler, the Associate Dean of Admissions at UofL School of Medicine, said that the school has seen a 35% increase in out-of-state applications during the past five years.

“Science has brought to the forefront in terms of helping people the past year the pandemic and that’s part of it,” Wheeler said.

Experts believe that students have more time for applications since college classes have shifted online. Many schools extended deadlines and fewer applications are taking a gap year because of limited opportunities. The interview process is cheaper due to travel restrictions — all of these factors on top of the work of frontline healthcare workers helped contribute to the trend.

“I had personal stories related to health that inspired me for a lot of students, potentially seeing the impacts of COVID[-19] in their community may have inspired them to apply as well,” said Anakwenze.

Wheeler said that usually 40% of people that take the MCAT apply to medical schools to at least get into one of the schools to which they applied. UofL’s out of state applications compete for very few spots. Out of about 4,500 applications, the school only selects 42.

“We are very selective about who we interview from out of state,” Wheeler said. “Most of the ones we interview from out of state have some connection to Kentucky."

Anakwenze’s advice for students who didn’t get into a school is to not be discouraged.

“You have to be able to continue pushing yourself and have that drive and know where you belong and what you want out of life as well as the positive impact you want to make on other people,” she said.