Percentage of Women in Texas Med Schools Hits Record High

The 2018 freshman class at Texas medical schools contains a record high percentage of women, according to data compiled by the Texas Medical Association.

The proportion of female first-year enrollments in Texas rose to 52.3 percent, up from 50.1 percent in 2017, and edging out the previous record of 51.4 percent hit in 2003.

In raw numbers, Texas' 12 medical schools accepted 1,053 women and 960 men in 2018, according to enrollment figures from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and the schools.

Texas' three newest medical schools — The University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School, The University of the Incarnate Word College of Osteopathic Medicine in San Antonio, and The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine — helped give women the edge. Cumulatively, those three schools enrolled 57.4 percent women compared with the nine more established schools, which enrolled 51.5 percent women, TMA data show.

New schools also made up two of the top three in female enrollment. Dell Medical School had the highest percentage of first-year women enrollments, at 64.7 percent (33 women to 18 men). It was followed by the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine in Lubbock with 57.9 percent (103 women to 75 men), and Incarnate Word at 57.6 percent (91 women to 67 men), according to TMA’s analysis.

Women beat out men in enrollments despite a virtual tie in medical school applications to the 10 publicly funded schools: 2,906 for men and 2,905 for women, according to the Texas Medical and Dental Schools Application Service. Those figures exclude two private medical schools, Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and Incarnate Word, whose applicant data was not available.

The slight edge in female enrollments in Texas mirrors a national trend. In 2018-19, women made up 51.6 percent of U.S. first-year students while men made up 48.3 percent, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

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Last Updated On

March 05, 2019

Originally Published On

March 05, 2019

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