URM Stats in Med School

[Aria111]

Supposedly URMs have a huge advantage when applying to med school, and their GPAs and MCATs are lower than non-URMs. Are there any numbers out on how URMs' stats compare to non-URM stats in med school. Do URMs get worse grades, do they struggle more, do they do worse on the Boards than non-URMs?
Just wondering if any research has been done...
thanks!
-Aria

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[efex101]

Yes there are numbers posted on the AAMC page under FACTS. There were approximately 4000 total URM's applying for the entering class of 2001 and about 1900 were accepted. URM's do have lower gpa and mcat scores (those accepted) than their other counterparts applying. I do not know if this is because the "pool" of URM's is not as huge (only 4000 applying) or just because they may come from disadvantaged household (yes, I know that this is not for *all* URM's but many do) or what. That said all the URM's that I have met doing research and the ones that are gung-ho about getting in, have excellent gpa, mcat, lor, ec's, yada yada. I can only speak for myself (Mexican-American URM) but I will not be holding my breath thinking that I am a shoe-in just for being a URM. I have studied my rear off (senior) and right now hold a 4.0, tons of volunteer, really nice ec's, excellent lor's, research, etc. So if you are a URM and you are reading this make sure that you max out on your potential, do not *assume* anything. Get in because you kicked a**!

 

[Aria111]

Thanks, efex! I am also wondering how URMs compare to non-URMs once in med school. Do you know of any reasearch that has attempted to answer how URM stats compare to non-URM stats during medical school, for the boards, and for residency matchings?

 

[efex101]

I am not sure if there are such studies/data, from my understanding though is that once accepted URM's do well. Check the AAMC web page they may have more info...

 

[Mr.D]

I believe yesterday there was a link (posted by Jimmy D entitled "Check this out") to a Stanford 2001 Admissions report which chronicled everything you can imagine when a person applies (e.g. sex, GPA, MCAT, URM status, etc.). It reports that in 2001 accepted URMs accross the nation had an mean overall GPA of 3.41 (std = 0.34) and mean MCAT of 24.8 (std = 5.3). Of course accepted Stanford URMs were reported to have numbers above the national mean. The link is here - <a href="http://www.med.stanford.edu/senate/01-02/01-11-14%20Att%20B1%20Admissions%20Report.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.med.stanford.edu/senate/01-02/01-11-14%20Att%20B1%20Admissions%20Report.pdf</a>

This is simply a report stating the facts not reasons or arguments as to why there's a discrepency. For that I think you'd have to do some research elsewhere. Hope this helps.