Audit of admission to medical school: I--Acceptances and rejects.

Abstract

Educational qualifications, demographic variables, type of schooling, family background, and the manner of application were examined in relation to overall selection. A level achievement was the major determinant of acceptance. 0 level achievement, early application, and medical parents had significant but smaller independent effects on the chance of acceptance. Social class, age, sex, and school type did not predict acceptance when corrected for academic and other factors. Few differences in personality, career preference, cultural interests or attitudes were found between those accepted and those rejected.

Like father, like son? Familial aggregation of physicians among medical and psychology students

“…Most notably, it exhibits close connections with social mobility studies, sociology and history of profession studies, and gender studies with respect to medicine. Common knowns from these much broader literatures include the following: social mobility studies have found that upward mobility into the medical profession from outside is aggravated, as the risk of unsuccessful application to medical schools is higher among those not having a medical family history (e.g., McManus and Richards 1984). Also, study progress in this group has been found to be less favorable than in students with medical relatives (Haidet et al 2002;Klink et al 2008).…”

“…(6) Various findings indicate that coming from a medical family is advantageous for medical students. Importantly, in countries with an admission system to academic medicine, successful applicants more likely have a medical parent than unsuccessful applicants (McManus and Richards 1984). Further, the reported proportions of medically qualified first-degree relatives are higher among clinical than among preclinical students (Haidet et al 2002), suggesting selective study dropout of those not coming from medical families.…”

An analysis of an admissions system: can performance in the first year of the dental course be predicted?

“…6 They also suggest that since A-and O-level are poor predictors of final university grades, the interview makes some correction for admission systems originally based only on A-level results. It has been shown in this paper, which follows a single cohort, and by other workers during longer periods, 7,8 that there is not a clear correlation between predicted and achieved grades and that reliability varies between subjects.…”

Racial discrimination in medicine

“…There is now considerable evidence that people from minority ethnic groups are discriminated against at each stage of their medical careers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9. This week's BMJ carries two papers that point to continuing discrimination on application to medical school 1 2.…”