Medical Students From Natural Science and Nonscience Undergraduate Backgrounds

Abstract

The majority of matriculating US medical students continue to major in the natural sciences as college undergraduates in the belief that this will enhance their chances of admission to and their performance in medical school. The present study compared the academic performance and residency selection of natural science and nonscience majors in three separate medical school classes at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Statistical analysis of grades in the first two years of medical school, clinical performance in the third year, and part I and part II National Board Medical Examination scores revealed no significant differences across three class replications. Residency selection among graduating seniors was also independent of undergraduate major. It is suggested that admissions committees, premedical advisors, and students reconsider their attitudes about the necessity of concentration in the natural sciences before entering medical school.

Is Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) Premedical Education Marginalized in the Medical School Admission Process? A Review and Contextualization of the Literature

“…30 Residency selection. Koenig 18 and Dickman et al 19 found no significant differences in specialty choice between medical students with SSH and science premedical education. However, two studies 12,16 identified an association between graduates with SSH premedical education and an increased likelihood of selecting primary care or psychiatry careers.…”

“…Seventeen studies focused on assessing the relationship between premedical education and medical school performance. 12,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] Generally, these studies reported basic equivalency in academic performance irrespective of premedical education. Outcomes compared included GPAs for each year of medical school, NBME and USMLE scores, delayed graduation and attrition rates, rates of academic difficulty, and average class ranking (see Table 1).…”

“…Thirteen studies focused on assessing the relationship between premedical education and clinical performance in medical school and beyond. 12,14,16,19,20,[24][25][26][27][28][30][31][32] Multiple studies reported basic equivalency of clinical competence across medical students, residents, or physicians irrespective of premedical education. 16,19,20,27,28,31,32 Outcomes compared included performance in clinical clerkships, first-year residency clinical performance ratings, humanism scores, patient-centered attitudes, and various clinical competencies (see Table 1).…”

An Overview of Admission Processes for Medical, Dental, Pharmacy, Physical Therapy, and Physician Assistant Programs

“…In fact, students from nonscience majors are encouraged to apply. Several studies have concluded that students from nonscience backgrounds have performed similarly to science majors in medical school and have chosen similar specialty areas as students from natural science backgrounds (Dickman, Sarnacki, Schimpfhauser, & Katz, 1980;Koenig, 1992). Through performance on the prerequisite course work, both science and nonscience majors display their abilities to understand and apply scientific principles.…”

What influences student experience of Graduate Entry Medicine? Qualitative findings from Swansea School of Medicine

“…The qualitative evidence that exists largely focusses on whether graduates make 'good doctors' (Gapper 2006), or evaluates problem-based medical curricula (Dickman et al 1980;Jones et al 2002;Dean et al 2003;Hayes et al 2004), but no studies have explored the range of influences from first degrees and other life experiences on GEP students.…”