Yes you have to remove the other bottlenecks in the system too (I talked about residency spots in another comment). This seems like an easy win without any accusations of lowering standards.
> the gains don't compound
You give doctors, on average, an additional 2 years of their life to practice medicine instead of spending them in college on a pointless degree (not to mention, slightly lower college debt when starting out). Multiply that over however many doctors we graduate every year, and it'll add up over time. It's not "compounding" in the mathematical sense of the word, obviously. If you assume that a medical career is about 35 years, that's like an 8% increase in available doctor-years over 35 years (or something like that - the math is a bit handwavy). Without doing literally anything else.
I saw your other comment about degree requirements and I'll respond here. In addition to the consulting website, I also looked at Johns Hopkins and they do have a degree requirement. Thanks for providing that counter-example. I wasn't aware and I'll update my understanding of this.
However, your own source said "a baccalaureate degree...is strongly preferred". So it has to be asked - how many non bachelor's degree holders actually get into med school?
Every US-trained doctor I've had has gotten a bachelor's degree (I read bios when they're available). The ones that don't were foreign-trained. If the number of med school applicants greatly exceeds the spots, I'd imagine nearly all serious applicants are going to get a bachelor's degree to improve their chances. It sounds like you're a doctor - what proportion of people in your class got in without a bachelor's degree?
> the gains don't compound
You give doctors, on average, an additional 2 years of their life to practice medicine instead of spending them in college on a pointless degree (not to mention, slightly lower college debt when starting out). Multiply that over however many doctors we graduate every year, and it'll add up over time. It's not "compounding" in the mathematical sense of the word, obviously. If you assume that a medical career is about 35 years, that's like an 8% increase in available doctor-years over 35 years (or something like that - the math is a bit handwavy). Without doing literally anything else.
I saw your other comment about degree requirements and I'll respond here. In addition to the consulting website, I also looked at Johns Hopkins and they do have a degree requirement. Thanks for providing that counter-example. I wasn't aware and I'll update my understanding of this.
However, your own source said "a baccalaureate degree...is strongly preferred". So it has to be asked - how many non bachelor's degree holders actually get into med school?
Every US-trained doctor I've had has gotten a bachelor's degree (I read bios when they're available). The ones that don't were foreign-trained. If the number of med school applicants greatly exceeds the spots, I'd imagine nearly all serious applicants are going to get a bachelor's degree to improve their chances. It sounds like you're a doctor - what proportion of people in your class got in without a bachelor's degree?