Medical School Performance, Alumni Membership, and Giving: How Do Scholarship Recipients and Non-Recipients Differ?

This study examines student recipients of merit, need-based, service, or minority scholarships, their performance in medical school, and the relationship to future alumni association membership and financial giving.

Retrospective data on grade-point average attained across the four-year curriculum and extracurricular activities reported at graduation were collected on students at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine from 1981-1991. Comparisons of academic performance and participation in institutional activities were made across scholarship recipients and non-recipients. These data were then linked to other data tracking alumni association membership and institutional giving.

Compared to other scholarship recipients and non-recipients, merit scholars were more likely to be ranked above their class medians and be involved in extracurricular activities, including membership in Alpha Omega Alpha. However, seven years post-graduation, there was no difference between scholarship recipients and non-recipients in alumni association membership or donations to the medical school. Instead, students graduating in the upper half of their class, as compared to graduates in the lower half, and UKCOM graduates who attended the University of Kentucky as undergraduates, rather than students who attended other in-state or out-of state institutions, were more likely to join the medical alumni association. Alumni association members were more likely than non-members to make donations to the institution.

More should be done to ensure that graduates who received scholarships are afforded meaningful ways to give back to the institution that supported them as students.