[chromatin]

The belief is -- and it is one that I share -- that this makes for more well rounded, human physicians.

Additionally, a greater depth of thinking leads to better diagnosticians, and physician-scientists as well (IMO).

Now, all of this is predicated on the traditional model of the University education, not the glorified jobs training program that it has slowly become.

[hnfong]

Cynically, it's also a way for the US system to gatekeep "poor" people from entering professions like medicine and law because of the extra tuition fees (and opportunity time-cost) needed to complete their studies.

[chromatin]

I am a natural skeptic, but in this case I think it is just an accident of history how different systems developed.

FWIW, although this is not well known, many medical schools offer combined BA/MD degrees, ranging from 4-8 years:

https://students-residents.aamc.org/medical-school-admission...

When I went 20 years ago, my school did not require a bachelor's degree and would admit exceptional students after 2 years of undergraduate coursework. However I think this has now gone away everywhere due to AAMC criteria

[FireBeyond]

In Australia, Medicine was/is typically an undergrad degree.

In the mid-90s my school started offering a Bachelor of Biomedical Science which was targeted at two audiences - people who wanted to go into Medicine from a research, not clinical perspective, and people who wanted to practice medicine in the US (specifically because it was so laborious for people to get credentialed in the US with a foreign medical degree, that people were starting to say "I will do my pre-med in Australia, and then just go to a US medical school").

[FireBeyond]

When I was in Australia and applying to study medicine (late 90s):

Course acceptance is initially driven by academic performance, and ranked scoring.

To get into Medicine at Monash and Melbourne Universities, you'd need a TER (Tertiary Entrance Ranking) of 99.8 (i.e. top 0.2% of students). This number was derived by course demand and capacity.

But, during my time, Monash was known for having a supplementary interview process with panel and individual interviews - the interview group was composed of faculty, practicing physicians not affiliated with the university, psychologists, and lay community members - specifically with the goal of looking for those well-rounded individuals.

It should also be noted that though "undergrad", there's little difference in the roadmap. Indeed when I was applying, the MBBS degree (Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery) was a six-year undergrad (soon revised to five), with similar post grad residency and other requirements for licensure and unrestricted practice.