Performance of medical students admitted via regular and admission-variance routes

Twenty-three medical students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds and drawn chiefly from Chicano and black racial minority groups were granted admission variances to the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine in 1970 and 1971. This group was compared with 21 regularly admitted junior and senoir medical students with respect to: specific admissions criteria (Medical College Admission Test scores, grade-point average, and college rating score); scores, on Part I of the examinations of the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME); and performance in at least two of the medicine, surgery, and pediatrics clerkships. The two populations differed markedly on admission. The usual screen would have precluded admission of all but one of the students granted variances. At the end of the second year, average NBME Part I scores again identified two distinct populations, but the average scores of both groups were clearly above the minimum passing level. The groups still differ on analysis of their aggregate performances on the clinical services, but the difference following completion of two of three major clinical clerkships has become the distinction between a "slightly above average" level of performance for the regularly admitted students and an "average" level for students admitted on variances.