Many traditional medical schools pick candidates primarily on academic performance. We look for a lot of experience in patient-care settings. My theory is that the best thing we do is pick a very diverse class. Each student tapped for PIMS has been through a rigorous screening process that involves whittling down 1,200 applicants to 500, then more whittling to 100 individuals who must then endure two one-hour interviews for the chance to become one of the 30 students in the PIMS class. Experience working in patient-care settings and commitment to community volunteer activities such as with Alzheimer's patients and support groups goes a long way with the PIMS admission committee, Hurt said.
Some people come in here with a glamorous and distorted idea about the life of a physician.
We want them to get into the trenches. We don't want them to get into their third year of med school and have doubts, so we do the weeding on the front end. Charles Ouimet, who previously served on the PIMS selection committee, says the process results in a medical student population unlike anywhere else in the country. That counts in healing somebody. After all the careful screening and the patient contact, it's still a gamble on whether or not the student will choose family practice, but Hurt says their selection process increases the odds.