INCREASING THE POOL OF QUALIFIED MINORITY MEDICAL-SCHOOL APPLICANTS -PREMEDICAL TRAINING AT HISTORICALLY BLACK-COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES

Historically black colleges and universities have educated significant numbers of black students preparing for careers in medicine. These in stitutions have the potential to make even greater contributions to th e 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 w ithin the Public Health Service, commissioned a study of the curriculu ms and other factors related to premedical education. The study was co nducted at the historically black colleges and universities that gradu ate a large number of students who gain admission to medical school, a nd the historically black colleges and universities whose students are less successful in gaining admission to medical school. Nine historic ally black colleges and universities participated in a self-assessment of their undergraduate premedical curriculums. The findings from scho ols with higher acceptance rates were compared with those of schools w ith lower acceptance rates to identify factors contributing to the pro duction of significant numbers of successful medical school applicants . Comparisons of data on these schools revealed several important fact ors that may be related to differences in acceptance rates: Those scho ols that devoted greater effort to premedical training (for example, a dvising students about how to prepare for medical school curriculum de velopment, maintaining premedical or prehealth professions offices and clubs-the staff of these offices provide students with information on medical or other health professions schools-to identify and recruit s tudents) tended to have higher acceptance rates. Schools with higher a cceptance 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. Institution s with higher acceptance rates offered a broader range of externally s ponsored enrichment programs, the highest medical school acceptance ra tes were found among those schools with continuing Health Careers Oppo rtunity Program projects that served significant percentages of studen ts interested in careers in medicine. Mean Medical College Admission T est scores were somewhat lower for applicants from schools with lower acceptance rates, but the great variation in acceptance rates for thes e schools is not rejected in a comparable variation in the Medical Col lege Admission Test scores.