Changes in the qualifications of medical school applicants, 1981 to 1985

The decline in the number of medical school applicants has prompted concerns among medical educators regarding the effects of this decrease on the qualifications of the applicant pool. Changes in the qualifications of medical school applicants were analyzed in terms of age, sex, and ethnicity or racial group using two measures of quality: Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) scores and grade-point averages. The distributions of these measures for 1981 and 1985 applicants were compared. The results showed that there were significant but modest gains over the years in the percentage of men and women applicants who scored from 10 to 15 on the MCAT biology, chemistry, physics, and science problems subtests. There were also significant percentage gains for applicants in all age categories, except applicants over age 32, and for all ethnic or racial groups except blacks. The authors conclude that a variety of sociodemographic, educational, and selection factors may account for these changes.