Rosa Chaviano-Moran, DMD, is Associate Dean for Admissions, Rutgers University School of Dental Medicine; Emil Chuck, PhD, is Director of Admissions, Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine; and Herminio Perez, DMD, MBA, is Director of Student Affairs, Diversity, and Inclusion, Rutgers University School of Dental Medicine.
J Dent Educ. 2019 Nov;83(11):1280-1288. doi: 10.21815/JDE.019.144. Epub 2019 Aug 26.
Screening of applicants for admission to dental school often relies on metrics such as overall undergraduate grade point average (oGPA) and Dental Admission Test (DAT) scores to identify desirable prospective students. The aim of this study was to assess unintended selection bias that may be overlooked or mitigated with holistic review and the influence of metrics at one U.S. dental school. Descriptive range analysis of oGPA and science GPA (sGPA), DAT scores, and total experience hours was performed for the 2017-18 application cycle for all applicants, those who self-identified as underrepresented minorities (URM), non-traditional applicants (with postbaccalaureate or master's coursework), and socioeconomically disadvantaged (SED) applicants reporting low parental employment-occupation scores. The results showed that, in screening this school's applicant pool, metrics-based candidate selection would favor those candidates in the 80 percentile of GPA and DAT Academic Average (AA) scores. Unless mitigated by other screening factors, reliance on these metrics tended to favor majority, traditional, and non-URM SED applicants. These findings suggested that the new admitted class would likely have fewer dental experience and employment hours than in the overall applicant pool. Interestingly, more non-traditional, SED, and URM applicants could be considered if higher general employment and dental experience hours had more impact in the screening process. These results illustrate the importance of deliberately considering non-cognitive metrics and characteristics to admit a more diverse student body.
牙科学院申请人的筛选通常依赖于总体本科平均绩点（oGPA）和牙科入学考试（DAT）分数等指标，以确定理想的潜在学生。本研究旨在评估可能被忽视或通过整体审查和一所美国牙科学校的指标减轻的无意选择偏差。对 2017-18 申请周期的所有申请人、自认为代表少数族裔（URM）的申请人、非传统申请人（具有学士后或硕士课程）以及报告低父母就业职业分数的社会经济弱势群体（SED）申请人的 oGPA 和科学 GPA（sGPA）、DAT 分数和总经验小时数进行描述性范围分析。结果表明，在筛选该校的申请人库时，基于指标的候选人选择将有利于那些 GPA 和 DAT 学术平均（AA）分数处于 80 百分位的候选人。除非其他筛选因素减轻了这种影响，否则依赖这些指标往往有利于多数族裔、传统和非 URM SED 申请人。这些发现表明，新录取的班级可能比总体申请人库中拥有更少的牙科经验和工作时间。有趣的是，如果更高的一般就业和牙科经验小时数在筛选过程中有更大的影响，那么可以考虑更多的非传统、SED 和 URM 申请人。这些结果表明，精心考虑非认知指标和特征对于录取更多样化的学生群体非常重要。
