Lower Admission Scores, Non-White Race/ethnicity May Increase Chance of Withdrawal from Medical School

Newswise — Dorothy A. Andriole, M.D., and Donna B. Jeffe, Ph.D., of Washington University, St. Louis, conducted a study to identify demographic variables prior to medical school acceptance associated with outcomes for medical school students. The study used data from a 1994-1999 national cohort of 97,445 students accepted to medical school who were followed up through March 2009 and had graduated, withdrawn, or were dismissed.

The authors found that “lower scores on the Medical College Admission Test, nonwhite race/ethnicity, and premedical debt of at least $50,000 were independently associated with a greater likelihood of academic withdrawal or dismissal and graduation without first-attempt passing scores on the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 and/or Step 2 Clinical Knowledge.”(JAMA. 2010;304[11]:1212-1219. Available pre-embargo to the media at www.jamamedia.org)