Section 14
Health Professions School Application Process: Percentages of Minorities in Entering Medical School Classes
Cynthia Lewis
This section is intended to provide information to minority students applying to medical or dental school. For the purposes of this discussion, minority is intended to mean minority underrepresented in the health professions as identified by the AAMC-that is, African Americans, Native Americans (including Alaskans), Mexican Americans, and mainland Puerto Ricans. Therefore, Asian Americans and similar minority groups which are not underrepresented in the health professions are not classified as minority here.
There are two reasons why a minority student should be interested in the enrollment of minorities at the medical schools to which he or she applies. First, the number of minority students at a school provides a relatively good idea of the number of persons from whom you might get peer support if you enrolled at that school. The availability of peer support is important since studies show that a good peer support system increases the chance of finishing medical or dental school. This means that if you go to a school with few minority students, you will have to learn to work with the majority students quickly. If you have no previous experience in doing so, you probably don't want to learn while under the pressures of medical or dental school. Second, the percentage of minority students at a school (when adjusted for location of the school and what is meant by minority as indicated below), probably provides a fairly accurate measure of how committed a school is to minority students-that is, how much they really want you.
In interpreting minority enrollment statistics, you should remember that minority probably means mostly Hispanic or Latino in the Southwest (e.g., Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Oklahoma, and California) and African American everywhere else in the U.S. except N.Y.C. where it probably also includes mainland Puerto Ricans. In addition, you should note that a low percentage of minority students at the University of Vermont (a school located in a state with very low minority populace) is probably less significant in terms of interpreting how committed a school is to minorities than a low enrollment in a city such as Atlanta or New Orleans where there is a large minority populace.
Information regarding minority enrollment at the medical and dental schools in this country are provided in Medical School Admissions Requirements and Dental School Admission Requirements. The statistics for medical schools are summarized periodically in a JAMA publication, The New Physician. The most recent of these summaries is reproduced here (excerpted from Xavier University of Louisiana).
An unprecedented 45,365 people applied for spots in the 1994-95 entering class at the nation's allopathic medical schools-including a record 5,060 underrepresented minority students.
For the first time, more than 2,000 underrepresented minority medical students are part of the entering class, comprising 12.4% of the total. Of these, 8.1% are African American, 2.8% are Mexican American/Chicano, 0.8% are mainland Puerto Rican, and 0.7% are American Indian/ Alaskan Native, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). While the overall applicant pool increased by 6.0%, the number of applicants from underrepresented minorities climbed at a greater rate: 7.3%.
Medical education has reached a major milestone in its 25-year effort to increase the presence of underrepresented minorities in medicine, says AAMC president, Dr. Jordan J. Cohen. Through educational programs and partnerships with local school systems, high schools, and colleges, the nation's medical schools have succeeded in increasing the number of educationally prepared minority student interested in careers in the health sciences.
Still, the AAMC is nearly a thousand students short of its goal of enrolling 2,000 underrepresented minorities in medical school annually by the end of the decade.
At osteopathic medical schools, meanwhile, underrepresented minorities comprise 8.8% of the 1994-95 freshman class. *African American students make up 3.7% of the first-year students; 0.8% of the students are Native American; and 4.3% are Hispanic** according to the American Association of Colleges of the Osteopathic Medicine (excerpted from The New Physician, 4/95).
Percentage of Underrepresented Minorities as New Entrants in Allopathic and Osteopathic Medical Schools
|
|
94/95 |
89/90 |
|
ALABAMA |
|
|
|
University of Alabama |
11.4 |
5.4 |
|
University of South Alabama |
12.5 |
12.2 |
|
ARIZONA |
|
|
|
University of Arizona |
21.0 |
11.6 |
|
ARKANSAS |
|
|
|
University of Arkansas |
9.1 |
9.9 |
|
CALIFORNIA |
|
|
|
College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific+ |
9.1 |
8.0 |
|
Loma Linda University |
7.5 |
3.1 |
|
Stanford University |
19.8 |
8.5 |
|
University of California, Davis |
9.7 |
27.2 |
|
University of California, Irvine |
15.2 |
17.0 |
|
University of California, Los Angeles/Drew |
31.5 |
22.7 |
|
University of California, San Diego |
18.0 |
26.0 |
|
University of California, San Francisco/Berkeley |
20.3 |
20.8 |
|
University of Southern California |
17.3 |
11.8 |
|
COLORADO |
|
|
|
University of Colorado |
11.1 |
7.6 |
|
CONNECTICUT |
|
|
|
University of Connecticut |
13.6 |
5.1 |
|
Yale University |
15.0 |
13.6 |
|
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA |
|
|
|
George Washington University |
15.3 |
3.9 |
|
Georgetown University |
11.9 |
8.6 |
|
Howard University |
58.2 |
77.9 |
|
FLORIDA |
|
|
|
NOVA Southeastern University COM+ |
13.2 |
21.9 |
|
University of Florida |
7.8 |
8.7 |
|
University of Miami |
10.8 |
8.0 |
|
University of South Florida |
12.5 |
5.1 |
|
GEORGIA |
|
|
|
Emory University |
10.5 |
5.0 |
|
Medical College of Georgia |
6.1 |
7.0 |
|
Mercer University |
3.7 |
7.1 |
|
Morehouse School of Medicine |
91.2 |
94.4 |
|
HAWAII |
|
|
|
University of Hawaii |
1.8 |
3.2 |
|
ILLINOIS |
|
|
|
Chicago COM+ |
6.3 |
2.8 |
|
Loyola University of Chicago |
6.2 |
3.7 |
|
Northwestern University |
4.6 |
3.8 |
|
Rush Medical College |
10.0 |
4.1 |
|
Southern Illinois University |
13.9 |
7.0 |
|
University of Chicago |
8.7 |
2.0 |
|
UHS/Chicago Medical School |
12.2 |
6.0 |
|
University of Illinois |
20.6 |
19.3 |
|
INDIANA |
|
|
|
Indiana University |
7.1 |
2.9 |
|
IOWA |
|
|
|
University of Iowa |
2.9 |
10.8 |
|
University of Osteo. Med. and Health Sciences+ |
1.4 |
11.9 |
|
KANSAS |
|
|
|
University of Kansas |
9.7 |
6.5 |
|
KENTUCKY |
|
|
|
University of Kentucky |
6.3 |
3.2 |
|
University of Louisville |
10.3 |
0.8 |
|
LOUISIANA |
|
|
|
Louisiana State University, New Orleans |
14.9 |
8.2 |
|
Louisiana State University, Shreveport |
4.0 |
4.0 |
|
Tulane University |
9.5 |
3.4 |
|
MAINE |
|
|
|
University of New England COM+ |
2.4 |
2.5 |
|
MARYLAND |
|
|
|
Johns Hopkins University |
5.1 |
13.6 |
|
Uniformed Services University |
5.4 |
6.6 |
|
University of Maryland |
13.1 |
17.0 |
|
MASSACHUSETTS |
|
|
|
Boston University |
11.5 |
12.6 |
|
Harvard Medical School |
17.9 |
14.1 |
|
Tufts University |
15.5 |
6.3 |
|
University of Massachusetts |
11.0 |
6.7 |
|
MICHIGAN |
|
|
|
Michigan State University |
18.1 |
11.9 |
|
Michigan State University, COM+ |
20.3 |
8.9 |
|
University of Michigan |
13.9 |
19.5 |
|
Wayne State University |
17.1 |
19.0 |
|
MINNESOTA |
|
|
|
Mayo Medical School |
23.8 |
4.5 |
|
University of Minnesota - Duluth |
16.0 |
2.0 |
|
University of Minnesota - Minneapolis |
5.4 |
3.4 |
|
MISSISSIPPI |
|
|
|
University of Mississippi |
13.0 |
8.6 |
|
MISSOURI |
|
|
|
Kirksville COM+ |
0.7 |
8.0 |
|
St. Louis University |
2.6 |
0.7 |
|
University of Health Sciences COM+ |
0.6 |
6.5 |
|
University of Missouri - Columbia |
2.1 |
7.8 |
|
University of Missouri - Kansas City |
4.5 |
7.2 |
|
Washington University |
9.8 |
5.9 |
|
NEBRASKA |
|
|
|
Creighton University |
7.1 |
2.6 |
|
University of Nebraska |
5.1 |
10.9 |
|
NEVADA |
|
|
|
University of Nevada |
7.7 |
2.1 |
|
NEW HAMPSHIRE |
|
|
|
Dartmouth Medical School |
6.8 |
11.2 |
|
NEW JERSEY |
|
|
|
UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical |
13.5 |
25.1 |
|
UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson |
20.3 |
15.9 |
|
UMDNJ-School of Osteopathic Medicine+ |
13.3 |
9.7 |
|
NEW MEXICO |
|
|
|
University of New Mexico |
20.5 |
13.9 |
|
NEW YORK |
|
|
|
Albany Medical College |
4.6 |
3.1 |
|
Albert Einstein College of Medicine |
4.5 |
10.8 |
|
Columbia University |
9.3 |
5.2 |
|
Cornell University |
14.9 |
13.9 |
|
Mount Sinai School of Medicine |
16.5 |
7.6 |
|
New York COM+ |
19.9 |
7.4 |
|
New York Medical College |
6.6 |
12.2 |
|
New York University |
4.3 |
5.0 |
|
SUNY-Brooklyn |
9.5 |
15.8 |
|
SUNY-Buffalo |
10.8 |
10.1 |
|
SUNY-Stony Brook |
7.0 |
7.0 |
|
SUNY-Syracuse |
9.4 |
19.4 |
|
University of Rochester |
11.2
|
11.5
|
|
NORTH CAROLINA |
|
|
|
Bowman Gray School of Medicine |
11.1 |
8.0 |
|
Duke University |
10.0 |
7.5 |
|
East Carolina University |
18.1 |
17.7 |
|
University of North Carolina |
16.3 |
12.0 |
|
NORTH DAKOTA |
|
|
|
University of North Dakota |
10.9 |
9.3 |
|
OHIO |
|
|
|
Case Western Reserve University |
11.8 |
16.4 |
|
Medical College of Ohio |
12.6 |
12.9 |
|
Northeastern Ohio University |
5.9 |
2.7 |
|
Ohio State University |
9.5 |
8.4 |
|
Ohio University COM+ |
17.5 |
5.6 |
|
University of Cincinnati |
11.7 |
6.0 |
|
Wright State University |
17.8 |
15.7 |
|
OKLAHOMA |
|
|
|
Oklahoma State University COM+ |
17.1 |
15.2 |
|
University of Oklahoma |
9.6 |
13.6 |
|
OREGON |
|
|
|
Oregon Health Sciences University |
7.5 |
4.2 |
|
PENNSYLVANIA |
|
|
|
Hahnemann University |
11.7 |
14.1 |
|
Jefferson Medical College |
3.6 |
2.6 |
|
Lake Erie COM+ |
2.5 |
++ |
|
Medical College of Pennsylvania |
10.7 |
11.5 |
|
Pennsylvania State University |
11.2 |
7.1 |
|
Philadelphia COM+ |
4.2 |
5.2 |
|
Temple University |
19.8 |
15.7 |
|
University of Pennsylvania |
18.7 |
6.4 |
|
University of Pittsburgh |
8.6 |
9.8 |
|
PUERTO RICO |
|
|
|
Ponce School of Medicine |
6.7 |
1.6 |
|
University Central del Caribe |
1.7 |
19.4 |
|
University of Puerto Rico |
9.3 |
3.0 |
|
RHODE ISLAND |
|
|
|
Brown University |
15.6 |
13.8 |
|
SOUTH CAROLINA |
|
|
|
Medical University of South Carolina |
15.7 |
2.2 |
|
University of South Carolina |
5.5 |
3.2 |
|
SOUTH DAKOTA |
|
|
|
University of South Dakota |
2.0 |
0.0 |
|
TENNESSEE |
|
|
|
East Tennessee State University |
6.7 |
9.8 |
|
Meharry Medical College |
75.0 |
82.7 |
|
University of Tennessee |
7.3 |
11.7 |
|
Vanderbilt University |
3.9 |
5.4 |
|
TEXAS |
|
|
|
Baylor College of Medicine |
11.4 |
4.3 |
|
Texas A&M University |
6.3 |
16.7 |
|
Texas COM+ |
17.7 |
15.3 |
|
Texas Tech University |
6.7 |
5.7 |
|
University of Texas, Galveston |
35.0 |
5.6 |
|
University of Texas, Houston |
25.7 |
13.4 |
|
University of Texas, San Antonio |
16.6 |
16.3 |
|
University of Texas, Southwestern |
11.6 |
16.2 |
|
UTAH |
|
|
|
University of Utah |
8.0 |
4.0 |
|
VERMONT |
|
|
|
University of Vermont |
5.5 |
2.1 |
|
VIRGINIA |
|
|
|
Eastern Virginia Medical School |
10.0 |
3.1 |
|
University of Virginia |
14.4 |
3.6 |
|
VCU/Medical College of Virginia |
10.4 |
7.0 |
|
WASHINGTON |
|
|
|
University of Washington |
10.8 |
5.4 |
|
WEST VIRGINIA |
|
|
|
Marshall University |
2.0 |
0.0 |
|
West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine+ |
7.5 |
5.8 |
|
West Virginia University |
1.1 |
0.0 |
|
WISCONSIN |
|
|
|
Medical College of Wisconsin |
9.9 |
1.9 |
|
University of Wisconsin |
16.1 |
8.1 |
Sources: Figures for allopathic medical school new entrants were provided by the AAMC. The data refer to underrepresented minorities: African Americans, American Indians/Alaskan Natives, Mexican Americans/Chicanos, and mainland Puerto Ricans.
Figures on underrepresented minorities in the osteopathic medical schools' first-year class were provided by the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine. The data refer to African Americans, Native Americans, and Hispanics as a whole.
* Separate data for new entrants at osteopathic schools were unavailable.
** Separate information on Mexican Americans/Chicanos and mainland Puerto Ricans was unavailable.
+ College of Osteopathic Medicine
++ Data not available
Chart completed by Christine Bixler