Department of Medicine, Uniformed Services University, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA.
OnlineMedEd, Austin, TX 78758, USA.
Mil Med. 2023 May 18;188(Suppl 2):11-18. doi: 10.1093/milmed/usad073.
As gatekeepers to the medical profession, admissions committees make important decisions through the analysis of quantitative (e.g. test scores and grade point averages) and qualitative (e.g. letters of recommendation and personal statements) data. One area of the application that deserves additional study is the Work and Activities section, where students describe their extracurricular experiences. Previous research has found different themes that sometimes overlap in the applications of exceptional performing and low performing medical students, but it is unclear if these themes are present in the applications of standard performers.
An exceptional performing medical student is defined as one who was inducted into both the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society and the Gold Humanism Honor Society. A low performing medical student is one who was referred to the Student Promotions Committee (SPC) where an administrative action was made. A standard performing medical student is defined as someone who was neither a member of an honor society nor referred to the SPC during medical school. Using a constant comparative method, the applications of standard performers who graduated from the Uniformed Services University between 2017 and 2019 was assessed using exceptional performer themes (success in a practiced activity, altruism, teamwork, entrepreneurship, wisdom, passion, and perseverance) and low performer themes (witnessing teamwork, embellishment of achievement, and description of a future event). The presence of novel themes was also assessed. The absolute number of themes and the diversity of themes were determined. Demographic data were collected (age, gender, number of Medical School Admissions Test [MCAT] attempts, highest MCAT score, and cumulative undergraduate grade point average), and descriptive statistics was performed.
A total of 327 standard performers were identified between 2017 and 2019. No novel themes were found after coding 20 applications. All exceptional performer themes were identified in the population of standard performers. The low performing theme of embellishment of achievement was not found. Standard performers had a lower number of total exceptional performer themes and a lower diversity of exceptional performer themes compared to low and exceptional performers, but standard performers also had a lower number and less diversity of low performing themes compared to low performers.
This study suggests that the diversity and frequency of exceptional performing themes in a medical school application may be useful in distinguishing between exceptional performers and other performers, though the small sample size limits quantitative conclusions. Low performing themes may be specific to low performers and thus could be useful to admissions committees. Future studies should include a larger sample size and could assess for predictive validity evidence of these exceptional performing and low performing themes through a blinded protocol.
作为医学专业的把关人，招生委员会通过分析定量（例如考试成绩和平均绩点）和定性（例如推荐信和个人陈述）数据来做出重要决策。申请材料中值得进一步研究的一个领域是工作和活动部分，学生在其中描述他们的课外经历。先前的研究发现了不同的主题，这些主题在表现出色的和表现不佳的医学生的申请中有时会重叠，但尚不清楚这些主题是否存在于表现标准的医学生的申请中。
一位表现出色的医学生被定义为同时被 Alpha Omega Alpha 荣誉医学协会和金人道主义荣誉协会录取的学生。表现不佳的医学生是指被学生晋升委员会（SPC）推荐的学生，该委员会采取了行政行动。表现标准的医学生是指在医学院期间既不是荣誉协会成员也没有被推荐到 SPC 的学生。使用恒定性比较方法，对 2017 年至 2019 年期间从统一服务大学毕业的标准表现者的申请进行了评估，使用了杰出表现者的主题（实践活动中的成功、利他主义、团队合作、创业精神、智慧、激情和毅力）和表现不佳者的主题（见证团队合作、夸大成就和描述未来事件）。还评估了新主题的存在。确定了主题的绝对数量和主题的多样性。收集了人口统计学数据（年龄、性别、医学院入学考试[MCAT]的尝试次数、最高 MCAT 分数和累积本科平均绩点），并进行了描述性统计。
在 2017 年至 2019 年期间，共确定了 327 名标准表现者。在对 20 份申请进行编码后，没有发现新的主题。所有杰出表现者的主题都在标准表现者群体中被识别出来。没有发现表现不佳的主题是夸大成就。与低表现者和杰出表现者相比，标准表现者的总杰出表现者主题数量较少，杰出表现者主题的多样性也较低，但与低表现者相比，标准表现者的低表现者主题数量和多样性也较低。
本研究表明，医学生申请中杰出表现者主题的多样性和频率可能有助于区分杰出表现者和其他表现者，尽管样本量较小限制了定量结论。低表现者的主题可能是特定于低表现者的，因此对招生委员会可能有用。未来的研究应该包括更大的样本量，并可以通过盲法协议评估这些杰出表现者和低表现者主题的预测有效性证据。
