Finanical Ramifications of Increasing Class Size: Evaluation of a National Dataset

Description: Increasing enrollment in medical schools raises the question of the cost of medical education compared to the tuition being charged. Does increasing class size necessarily increase overall revenue to the medical school? Rationale: As a result of recommendations from the AAMC to increase the physician workforce, many medical schools are increasing class size. Few have systematically evaluated the financial effects of class expansion on a national level. The actual cost of educating a medical student is not easily determined given the many variable costs that are associated with that educational experience. Adding to this complexity is the number of ways in which individual schools budget educational costs as a function of applicable revenue sources such as tuition. Methods: Data from the 2009 LCME Part-1-A Annual Financial Questionnaire (AFQ) were used to estimate the average cost of educating a medical student in the US. To estimate cost, three revenue sources were included in our analysis: Total Tuition and Fees Revenue, Total Government and Parental Support, and Total Revenues from Gifts and Endowment. Totals were tabulated for each medical school that charges tuition. These revenues were adjusted following the Wisconsin MAMA model using a factor of 60% of revenue allocated to education. Simple linear regression was used to determine the average fixed costs (y-intercept) and variable costs (slope) for educating a medical student. Results: The best point estimate of the annual cost of educating a medical student is $62,877 which is higher than any medical school tuition. Thus, increasing medical school class size does not increase revenue to medical schools.