To the Editor: I write to voice my objection to the use of the term “tsunami” by many in the medical education community when describing the massive increase in medical student numbers that has begun as a result of recent government initiatives.1-5

Although it is true that the government has opened the floodgates, as opposed to the water restrictions they applied in the mid 1990s, I believe describing this increase using the metaphor of a tsunami is a misnomer.