Increasing the pool of qualified minority medical school applicants: premedical training at historically black colleges and universities

Abstract

Historically black colleges and universities have educated significant numbers of black students preparing for careers in medicine. These institutions have the potential to make even greater contributions to the pool of black medical school applicants and ultimately to the supply of black physicians. The Division of Disadvantaged Assistance, Bureau of Health Professions, Health Resources and Services Administration within the Public Health Service, commissioned a study of the curriculums and other factors related to premedical education. The study was conducted at the historically black colleges and universities that graduate a large number of students who gain admission to medical school, and the historically black colleges and universities whose students are less successful in gaining admission to medical school. Nine historically black colleges and universities participated in a self-assessment of their undergraduate premedical curriculums. The findings from schools with higher acceptance rates were compared with those of schools with lower acceptance rates to identify factors contributing to the production of significant numbers of successful medical school applicants. Comparisons of data on these schools revealed several important factors that may be related to differences in acceptance rates: Those schools that devoted greater effort to premedical training (for example, advising students about how to prepare for medical school, curriculum development, maintaining premedical or pre-health professions offices and clubs--the staff of these offices provide students with information on medical or other health professions schools--to identify and recruit students) tended to have higher acceptance rates. * Schools with higher acceptance rates had larger proportions of biology and chemistry majors aspiring to medical and dental careers and stronger affiliations with medical schools than schools with lower acceptance rates.* Institutions with higher acceptance rates offered a broader range of externally sponsored enrichment programs; the highest medical school acceptance rates were found among those schools with continuing Health Careers Opportunity Program projects that served significant percentages of students interested in careers in medicine.* Mean Medical College Admission Test scores were somewhat lower for applicants from schools with lower acceptance rates, but the great variation in acceptance rates for these schools is not reflected in a comparable variation in the Medical College Admission Test scores.