There are few professions, if any, that require as much as training as becoming a doctor. After four years of undergraduate studies, candidates have to pass the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) before beginning four years of medical school. That is then followed by residency programs that can last anywhere from three to seven years, before becoming licensed as a doctor. 

Now, that process could become one year shorter. 

New York University's School of Medicine and few other medical schools are beginning to offer a select group of students the option of completing medical school in three years instead of four. The schools behind the curriculum changes say it will save students one-year's worth of tuition (at NYU, one year of medical school costs $49,560 in tuition and fees), and produce doctors at a faster pace at a time when the country is facing a shortage of physicians. 

Art Caplan, director of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center weighs the pros and cons of this decision, and considers whether this could become a model for more medical schools.