Western Age Bias?

[marcoyolo]

I was looking through the admissions statistics for UWO's class of 2025 and noticed that only 25% of the class was 25 years or older. Does Western have a history of favoring a younger class? 

[poorpremed]

6 hours ago, marcoyolo said:

I was looking through the admissions statistics for UWO's class of 2025 and noticed that only 25% of the class was 25 years or older. Does Western have a history of favoring a younger class? 

I wouldn't necessarily jump to conclusions like that. I would think most schools would want older applicants a little more because they have more lived experiences and may be more mature. in general, I think there are a lot more younger applicants and therefore the pool of those under 25 is much larger of 25+, therefore odds that they get chosen for an interview is a lot higher. Who knows - maybe a larger proportion of those 25+ actually get an interview and get in than of those under 25 but it just seems lower because less people who are 25+ apply to medical school/Western. I am just speculating, but just some things to think about. 

[MDee2B]

Many applicants finish undergrad in their early twenties and then apply straight to med from there. Sure there are people who take gap years, do grad school, start other career paths/families etc and then decide to reorient, but I would think this latter group is smaller than the former group. this is because once “life gets in the way” and the inertia of another career/life path is already set, it’s much harder to change course as you get older compared to when you’re young (under 25).

Maybe (probably) you don’t have financial support anymore from your parents, maybe you have dependents of your own to look after, and maybe you just don’t have the energy to put up with school/intense learning (again) that you once did in your early twenties.

for all these reasons, I find it logical and would suspect the portion of applicants <25yo to be substantially greater than those >25, leading to a similar representation in admissions statistics. there are just a lot less hindrances/obligations that only creep up the older you get 

 

[Kanye East]

I agree with the earlier posts too! Western also has more rigorous prereqs (requires completing/completed undergrad, higher MCAT cutoffs, 8 whole essays) that take way more time to do. If you just factor in those components, including the MCAT, Western's application would be one of the most time consuming ones. As an older applicant myself who finished grad school and is working it really does get tougher to balance a 9-5, personal life (with increasing responsibilities: e.g. family, rent, loans, etc.), and applications. Your final year in undergrad/grad school is when you'd usually have the optimal amount of time to work on apps if you factor in summer and on top of it being the largest demographic of applicants, it would absolutely skew the average age towards under 25! 

[marcoyolo]

Thanks to all replies, I think everyone has raised thoughtful and valid points. As an older applicant myself I can certainly understand the added toll this rigorous process takes as life responsibilities begin to add up. I think it would be interesting to see an age distribution of those applying and intuitively, I would think that it tends to skew younger. I believe seeing an article a while back that Canadian med school grads have slowly been trending older over time though so I cannot say for sure. 

Thanks for everyone's thoughts!