Do you know why the attrition rates are high? Or is that normal?
That’s normal for all med schools
if you google, "med school attrition rates," the second search result down is data from AAMC on 4 year graduation rates across MD programs. which ranges between 16-19%. i've dropped the link here for your convenience!
https://www.aamc.org/media/48526/download
if you google "DO school attrition rates," the fourth search result down is data from AACOMAS on attrition rates across de-identified DO schools, which is a little bit more dense to sort through, but reflects the nuance of attrition as I mention below. i've dropped that link here for your convenience as well!
https://www.aacom.org/docs/default-...rition-report-2019-2022.pdf?sfvrsn=f4717145_3
i would also mentioned "attrition" is a word that gets loosely thrown around a lot by people that don't really understand what they are speaking about, because it is definable in multiple different ways, and that definition gets lost in the conversation 99% of the time. for example do you define attrition as "who starts medical school and doesn't finish?" or "who starts medical school and doesn't finish in 4 years?" thats why AAMC reports 4 year, 5 year, and 6 year graduation rates, and why the AACOMAS data reflects numerous scenarios in which students don't finish medical school in the standard timeline.
so in full transparency, while carey (and most medical schools) would say their attrition is <10%, they are not including in that 10% students that drop to the next class, take an LOA, etc, or anything that would cause the student to still graduate, but not on the 4 year timeline.
as an anecdotal note, my class started with 207 students in August 2022, and we currently have 180 students in our class that finished this semester. so that would be 180/207 x 100 = 86% or 14%ish who will not graduate with Class of 2026, which lines up pretty well with the AAMC data. (still slightly inaccurate because Class of 2026 has a handful of people who were supposed to graduate with class of 2025). however, i would say 80% of those 14% either took an LOA, dropped to Class of 2027, which means their data would not be included in "attrition" because they will still graduate, just not on the 4 year timeline.
to confuse matters more, my class's 4 year graduation rate will also be confabulated by the fact we have 4 students who are doing the OPP scholars program for a year (kind of like a research year but for specific focus in OMM training) as well as a couple students who are interested in neurosurgery that will be doing 3rd year research years. so that will make our 4 year graduation rate look worse than it actually is too haha
all that to say asking about "attrition" is a pretty ambiguous question that requires a bit more conversation than we usually give it!
