Retention by sex and race of 1968-1972 U.S. medical school entrants.

With expanding class sizes and increased proportions of women and minority group medical students, questions are frequently asked concerning recent trends in retention and graduation rates. In this article the authors report on a national Association of American Medical Colleges study of new entrants in the 1968 through 1972 first-year classes of U.S. medical schools and place this study in historical perspective. They note that recent attrition rates are only about half that of the 9 percent reported in the last national AAMC study of 1949-1958 entrants. Although the retention rate for women and for underrepresented minorities is still slightly less than that for white males, the gap appears to be narrowing. Suggestions for optimum retention include: (a) enlarging the pool of minority applicants, (b) improving the techniques of student selection, and (c) increasing the flexibility of academic programs in the medical schools.