Ventures in education: a pipeline to medical education for minority and economically disadvantaged students.

BACKGROUND

Ventures in Education is an independent, nonprofit educational organization established by the Josiah H. Macy, Jr. Foundation to improve the academic achievement of minority and economically disadvantaged students, particularly in science and mathematics. One specific objective has been to increase the number of students who enter schools of the health professions, in particular schools of medicine, which was the focus of this study.

METHOD

A search was conducted of the Association of American Medical Colleges' (AAMC's) Student and Applicant Information Management System database, to determine whether any of the 981 graduates in the first five Venture classes (1985 to 1989) of the original five New York City high schools in the program had pursued medical education.

RESULTS

The search located 160 of the 981 Ventures graduates, and, of those, 136 had taken the Medical College Admission Test (13.9%), 109 (11.1%) has applied to medical school, 75 (7.6%) had been accepted, and 72 (7.3%) had matriculated into medical school. All of these percentages were significantly higher than the corresponding percentages for the general population.

CONCLUSION

The findings have important implications for the AAMC's Project 3000 by 2000, showing that a rigorous academic curriculum with resources for individualized attention can facilitate the entry of minority and economically disadvantage students into medical education, with at least 7.3% of the Ventures graduates entering medical school and nearly 70% of those applying subsequently being accepted.