Findings seen for both applicants and matriculants into M.D. programs in the United States from 2014 to 2019
By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESSDAY, May 17, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Medical school applicants coming from higher-income families have a greater likelihood of acceptance than those from low-income families, according to a research letter published online May 11 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Mytien Nguyen, from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and colleagues examined trends in childhood household income among 232,275 applicants and 93,258 matriculants to medical school in 2014 to 2019 and the likelihood of acceptance by income. Overall, applicants were 50.9 percent male and 52.3 percent White, with a 3.58 median grade point average. The median number of programs applied to was 13.
The researchers found that the percentage of applicants reporting income in the categories >$75,000 increased annually, with the highest increase seen in the category of ≥$200,000 (annual percent change, 0.41 percent). Over time, the percentage of applicants and matriculants reporting income in the categories
“These findings reinforce calls for holistic review and medical education debt reform to remove potential barriers to admission among low-income applicants,” the authors write.
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