Leveraging the Medical School Admissions Process to Foster a Smart, Humanistic, and Diverse Physician Workforce

An excellent physician has a range of talents, including the knowledge and critical thinking abilities to work with the rapidly changing biomedical and social science content of the profession as well as the interpersonal and communication skills to build meaningful relationships with patients and families. The Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) was revised in 2015 to focus more on analytical reasoning skills and behavioral and social sciences knowledge to ensure that future physicians have the capabilities needed to care for patients in the 21st century and to allow admissions committees to identify applicants who have demonstrated proficiency in these areas. With these changes, scores continue to be predictive of student performance in the preclerkship curriculum.In this Invited Commentary, the author argues that, as educators struggle to define the characteristics of the "right" candidates for medical school and design processes to identify and admit those applicants, it is important to consider the message being sent by calls for the MCAT exam to play a reduced role in admissions decisions. Educators must avoid diminishing the importance of intellectual rigor and, while pursuing goals for a more diverse physician workforce, maintain standards that ensure medicine's commitment to patients. The author concludes with suggestions for how educators can work with under-resourced colleges and premedical programs to help disadvantaged students get the preparation they need to succeed in medical school and throughout their careers. Taking these steps will allow educators to support students, prepare them for practice, and fulfill their obligation to the public to produce excellent physicians.