Throughout the past year, the Division of Health Sciences has tackled several issues unique to West Virginia, ranging from conducting focus groups with medical students to improvements in the Health Sciences scholarship program. The progress made over the past year has ushered in new projects and developments for the Division of Health Sciences…

When it comes to education from K-12 and into the college years, the literature is replete with stories of the accomplishments of youngsters and adults with any number of disabilities who surpassed the expectations of their families and teachers. Similarly, there are an increasing number of examples of young men and women with a range of…

Decisions about admissions to medical school are based on assessments of the applicants' cognitive achievements and non-cognitive traits. Admission criteria are expected to be fair, transparent, evidence-based and legally defensible. However, unlike cognitive criteria, which are highly reliable and moderately valid, the reliability and validity of…

Purpose: Self-declaration of personal values has been suggested as a means of identifying students with greater predilection for future primary care careers. While statistically significant differences have been demonstrated, absolute differences between those interested in primary care and those interested in specialist careers tend to be small.…

As the healthcare landscape in West Virginia evolves, West Virginia's health professions programs are working closer together than ever to improve citizen's health and access to care. In particular, the state's three academic health centers, the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine at Marshall University, the West Virginia School of Osteopathic…

Purpose: This study determines the relationship between a medical school applicant's rural background and the likelihood of rural practice using different definitions of rural background. Methods: Cohort study of 599 physicians who entered the University of Virginia School of Medicine in 1990-1995 and graduated in 1994-1999. The…

This study examines students' perceptions of reference letters. Students (n = 444) were asked to describe how they perceived reference letters. Four themes were uncovered. First, some students perceived reference letters as useful for employers. Second, some students perceived the letters as important for students seeking employment or admission…

Despite the important role the personal statement plays in the graduate school application processes, little research has been done on its functional features and little instruction has been given about it in academic writing courses. The author conducted a multi-level discourse analysis on a corpus of 30 medical/dental school application letters,…

Background and purpose: Data supporting the predictive validity of the medical school admission interview are mixed. This study tested the hypothesis that the admission interview is predictive of interpersonal interactions between medical students and standardized patients. Method: We determined correlations between admission interview scores and…

Presents suggestions for alleviating the problem of applicants submitting papers to several medical schools by having a central agency match applicants with highly preferred medical schools. (PEB)

The Simulated Minority Admissions Exercise, an educational technique that simulates a typical medical school admissions situation, is described. The main objective is to help medical schools to select potentially successful minority applicants and to improve their retention by ensuring that they enter medical school under positive circumstances.…

Applicant interviews for medical schools were examined to determine the degree, if any, of sexual discrimination. It was found that, although blatant discrimination did not exist, elusive differences in the evaluation of candidates were present. (GLR)