China's "medical school fever" has cooled. The profession of doctor, once a symbol of social prestige and high income, is losing its appeal. At some universities, the reversal has gone so far that veterinary science admission cutoffs now exceed those for medical schools. Analysts say the center of gravity in college admissions is shifting from "prestige" to "stable employment."
According to reports from Chinese economic media outlet Caixin on the 25th, admission thresholds for five-year clinical medicine programs at several Chinese universities fell across the board this year. At Shandong Medical University (formerly Binzhou Medical University), the lowest admission rank for clinical medicine was recorded at 111,114th place (541 points).
That figure fell more than 20,000 places from the previous year. The situation is no different at Shandong First Medical University. The lowest admission rank for its five-year clinical medicine program has declined for a third consecutive year, reaching 61,010th place this year, more than 20,000 places lower than in 2024.
By contrast, veterinary science is regarded as the discipline whose value has risen the most among China's agriculture and forestry majors. At many universities, veterinary science applicant rankings and admission scores have surpassed those for clinical medicine. The veterinary science program at Yangzhou University in Jiangsu Province recorded a lowest admission score of 583 points this year. The cutoff for a separate recruitment group covering animal and plant quarantine, laboratory animal science, and veterinary public health (569 points) also exceeded that of the clinical medicine recruitment group.
In China, the title of doctor has long been considered a profession combining honor, stability, and high income. During the COVID-19 period, social respect toward medical staff grew, and admissions competition ratios rose along with it. But the recent mood has reversed. As medical insurance payment methods are reformed and joint purchasing of medical consumables spreads, working conditions themselves are being shaken. Doctors' pay is being readjusted to a "reasonable level" put forward by authorities. Combined with long training periods and high-intensity work, a trend has emerged among students and parents to reassess the value of the medical profession.
In particular, the perception is spreading that completing only a five-year clinical medicine program without going on to graduate school makes it difficult to receive the expected economic reward, while employment barriers remain high. This is because the majority of large and medium-sized public hospitals in China require a graduate degree as a hiring condition. As a result, the gap between integrated programs leading to master's and doctoral degrees and simple five-year undergraduate programs is widening. Five-year graduates who fail to enter graduate school are often pushed toward primary care institutions or private hospitals, leaving them with narrower options.
Riding this trend, high-scoring test-takers are shifting their attention to majors that guarantee employment, such as military and police academies, government-supported teachers' colleges, and science and engineering departments at prestigious universities. By contrast, special clinical medicine programs to train regional medical personnel, which guarantee employment after graduation, remain strong. In exchange for tuition exemption and living cost subsidies for five years, students take on the condition of mandatory service at frontline medical institutions for six years after graduation.
In Guangdong Province, five medical colleges filled all first-round quotas in rural medical personnel training programs targeting physics-track test-takers. At Guangdong Medical University, the admission cutoff for this program's recruitment unit was 602 points, actually higher than that of the standard clinical medicine program (551 points).
