Note to editors: Kaplan is a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO)
Russell Schaffer, russell.schaffer@kaplan.com, 212.453.7538
Carina Wong, carina.wong@kaplan.com, 212.453.7571
Twitter: @KapTestNews
New York, NY (February 20, 2013) – Don’t expect to get a doctor’s appointment quicker or spend less time in the waiting room of your primary care physician anytime soon. According to a recent Kaplan Test Prep survey of 543 pre-medical students*, just 32% say they plan to become primary care physicians after earning their MD, while 68% say they plan to become specialists (i.e. cardiologist, neurologist, anesthesiologist, etc.). Of the 68% who plan to become specialists, 86% say the main reason is “academic/personal interest;” only 2% cited “better salary,” although specialists are known to make significantly more than primary care physicians.
This lack of interest in pursuing a career in primary care is troubling news for Americans at a time when the projected shortage of primary care physicians is expected to balloon from 9,000 today to about 65,000 over the next 20 years. The main reasons for the shortage: doctors from the Baby Boom generation are rapidly retiring and their fellow Baby Boomers increasingly need medical care as they age. Medical school enrollment is actually up over the past few years, but not at a fast enough clip to stem the tide.
The medical education community, led by the Association of American Medical Colleges, which represents all 141 accredited U.S. and 17 accredited Canadian allopathic medical schools, has been preparing for the physician shortage by taking several measures: building new medical schools around the country and expanding the number of seats for new students at existing medical schools—with a goal of 30% by 2015, which will result in an additional 5,000 new MD’s annually. Medical schools are also exploring the possibility of shortening medical school from its current four years to three years, so doctors go into practice quicker. This would be popular among aspiring doctors: 71% of pre-meds in Kaplan’s survey said that all other factors being equal, they’d be more likely to attend a three-year program than a four-year program.
“This is among the most exciting times in both medical education and healthcare in generations,” said Owen Farcy, director of pre-health programs, Kaplan Test Prep. “With the Affordable Care Act set to take full effect in 2014 and patient demographics changing rapidly, the need for more primary care doctors will only intensify. While pre-meds say that the main reason they are set on becoming specialists is because of their personal or academic interest, we also think earning potential is understandably a key factor considering how much debt most medical school graduates are saddled with. It’s not about greed, but rather about getting their financial lives in order.” Farcy also notes that shaving a year off of medical school could save students as much as $50,000 in tuition and fees.
Farcy points out that 2015 is important, not only because it’s the year the AAMC hopes to meet its medical school expansion goal, but also when the AAMC will launch the new MCAT, the medical school admissions exam required by nearly every accredited medical school across the United States and Canada. Changes to the new MCAT include the addition of subjects in the behavioral and social sciences, advanced science concepts in biochemistry and molecular biology, and expanded critical thinking throughout the exam. While the writing section has already been eliminated as of this year, the additional content will make the 2015 MCAT more than an hour longer than the current exam—going from 5 ½ hours to roughly 7 hours.
For more information about the upcoming changes to the MCAT, including advice for current pre-meds about how they will be impacted, visit www.kaptest.com/MCAT2015.
To schedule an interview with a Kaplan Test Prep medical school admissions expert, contact Russell Schaffer at russell.schaffer@kaplan.com or 212.453.7538.
*The survey was conducted via email in January and February 2013 of 543 pre-med students who took a Kaplan Test Prep MCAT course.
About Kaplan Test Prep
Kaplan Test Prep (www.kaptest.com) is a premier provider of educational and career services for individuals, schools and businesses. Established in 1938, Kaplan is the world leader in the test prep industry. With a comprehensive menu of online offerings as well as a complete array of print books and digital products, Kaplan offers preparation for more than 90 standardized tests, including entrance exams for secondary school, college and graduate school, as well as professional licensing exams for attorneys, physicians and nurses. Kaplan also provides private tutoring and graduate admissions consulting services.
# # #
Kaplan EdTech Accelerator will host 10 technology startups focused across education sectors—from K-12 to higher ed and more—for intensive three-month mentoring and development program in New York City in summer 2013
Note to editors: Kaplan is a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO)
Ken Brown, ken.brown@kaplan.com, 212.974.6228
Twitter: @KaplanNews
New York, NY (February 18, 2013) - Kaplan, Inc., the global education services company and largest subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO), announced today the launch of the Kaplan EdTech Accelerator, powered by TechStars, an intensive three-month mentoring and business development program for 10 startup companies, in collaboration with TechStars, a nationally recognized startup accelerator.
The Kaplan EdTech Accelerator will select startups using technology to create products and services across the broad spectrum of education including K-12, higher education, professional education, lifelong learning, and other areas. TechStars will invest $20,000 in each company accepted into the program.
The Kaplan EdTech Accelerator is the first corporate sponsored accelerator focused exclusively on the education sector, using TechStars’ mentor-driven, deep immersion model. TechStars has completed 15 accelerator programs and its selected companies have attracted more than $285 million in funding in the past six years.
The Kaplan EdTech Accelerator will host the startups, to be chosen by application, at its offices in New York City’s West Village neighborhood from June to September 2013. They will be mentored by industry leaders, such as Kaplan, Inc. Chairman and CEO Andy Rosen, TechStars founder and CEO David Cohen, Washington Post Company Chairman and CEO Don Graham, noted venture capitalist and Foundry Group Managing Director Brad Feld, and many notable founders of ed-tech companies, including Jose Ferreira of Knewton and Eren Bali of Udemy.
Additionally, Kaplan will provide the startups with office space and facilities, and other resources as they work to build their companies and products. This support includes access to Kaplan’s proprietary “Kaplan Way for Learning” program, which harnesses the latest learnings from the fields of science, instructional design, and technology to support the development of highly effective, evidence-based learning products. Kaplan also has tremendous reach in education with more than one million students enrolled annually, relationships with 300-plus U.S. school districts, more than 20 university partners worldwide, and thousands of corporate customers.
The program will culminate in Demo Day, when the startups’ founders will present for an elite group of angel and venture investors and education industry influencers, with the goal of securing funding to grow their companies.
“We’re thrilled about partnering with TechStars to launch the Kaplan EdTech Accelerator,” said Andy Rosen, Kaplan, Inc. chairman and CEO. “Kaplan’s mission is to provide students around the world with the best, most efficient means to achieving their educational goals. Ongoing cultivation of new innovations from all across the sector—in ways like this accelerator program—is embedded in our company’s history.”
From its start, Kaplan has pioneered notable education innovations. It has, for example, launched the first wholly online law school in the U.S.; built its online university into one of the country’s largest higher education institutions; and, more recently, created mobile delivery systems for its test prep and professional education customers, a new prior learning assessment service for adult learners, and an innovative, large-scale online instructional platform, KAPx. Kaplan will be making available as mentors several of those Kaplan professionals who have driven many of these innovations.
The application deadline is April 14, 2013. Selected companies will be contacted in late April, and the program will begin in June. Further details and the application for the program are available at KaplanEdTechAccelerator.com.
About Kaplan
Kaplan, Inc. is a leading international provider of educational and career services for individuals, schools, and businesses. Kaplan serves students of all ages through a wide array of offerings including higher education, test preparation, professional training, and programs for kids in grades K through 12. Kaplan also operates an active venture capital fund, Kaplan Ventures, which invests in and supports early-stage education companies. Kaplan is a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO) and its largest division. For more information, please visit www.kaplan.com.
About TechStars
TechStars was founded in 2006 and is backed by over 75 different venture capital firms. Consistently rated the #1 startup accelerator in the world, TechStars executes an intensive 90-day, mentorship-driven program for entrepreneurs. For each program, ten companies are selected from a large pool of applicants. The selection rates for a TechStars program are lower than an Ivy League school at 1%. TechStars offers programs in six locations: Boulder, Boston, New York, Seattle, Chicago, and the Cloud program in San Antonio. In addition, TechStars offers the same successful model to corporations such as Nike, Microsoft and Kaplan, Inc. as “powered by TechStars” programs.
# # #