Diversity in membership of medical school admissions committees

Tradition has restricted the range of members on medical school admissions committees to medical school faculties. To test whether diversity among members of admissions committees may be as desirable as diversity among students, the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) sponsored a simulated admissions conference. The conference offered nonmedical professionals opportunities to critique the admissions process, to suggest new approaches, and to participate a simulated admissions procedure. The conferees identified and rank-ordered the 12 characteristics they considered desirable in medical school applicants. These were compared with the rankings of these characteristics by the UMMS Admissions Committee. The simulated admissions committee declared that undergraduate college grades and scores on the Medical College Admission Test were of subordinate significance to humanistic and philosophic values. However, when actually selecting from facsimile applications, the conferees placed greater emphasis on quantifiable data than they had expected. The conference emphasized the desirability of the cross-fertilization of ideas between nontraditional members and the actual admissions committee.