Pre-admission academic predictors of the goals of a primary care-oriented medical school.

This study investigated the relationship of two widely-used preadmission academic predictors (undergraduate grade point average and the Medical College Admission Test) to a sequence of four goals for a primary care-oriented medical school. Graduates from the first four classes of a new medical school (n = 237) were used in the study. Correlation and multiple regression analysis were performed. It was concluded that pre-admission academic variables (undergraduate GPA and MCAT) are useful in screening for academic success in medical school (especially for preclinical courses) and licensability (especially NBME Part 1 and 2). Furthermore, no useful predictor of residency performance or choice of a primary care specialty was identified. Provisos related to the conclusions and future research directions are discussed.