College competitiveness and medical school exam performance
Joshua Levy1, Hiba Kausar2, Deepal Patel2
1Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV, Las Vegas, NV, USA. levyj1@unlv.nevada.edu.
BMC Medical Education
|November 12, 2022
Summary
Students from competitive undergraduate colleges do not perform better on medical licensing exams like the USMLE Steps 1 and 2. Institutional selectivity predicts MCAT scores but not later medical school performance.
Area of Science:
- Medical Education
- Higher Education Studies
- Medical Licensing Examinations
Background:
- Traditional medical school admissions predictors include MCAT scores, grades, and undergraduate institution prestige.
- Concerns exist about potential bias against applicants from less competitive universities.
- Limited research has explored the impact of undergraduate college competitiveness on USMLE Step 1 and 2 performance.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether students from competitive undergraduate colleges achieve higher scores on medical school benchmark examinations.
- To assess the correlation between undergraduate institutional selectivity and performance in medical school.
Main Methods:
- Defined "Competitive College" based on a threshold of students scoring >=1400 on the SAT.
- Categorized institutions as "Competitive" or "Non-Competitive".
- Utilized descriptive statistics and unpaired t-tests to compare scores on MCAT, NBME Phase 1, USMLE Step 1, NBME Phase 2, and USMLE Step 2.
Main Results:
- No statistically significant performance differences were found between students from competitive and non-competitive undergraduate colleges on medical school benchmark exams post-MCAT.
- Undergraduate institutional selectivity was a significant predictor of MCAT scores.
Conclusions:
- Medical school admissions committees can use institutional selectivity data to predict MCAT performance.
- Undergraduate college competitiveness does not appear to be a reliable predictor of performance on standardized medical school examinations like USMLE Steps 1 and 2.
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