Faculty Collaboration Database

Medical Education with 3-Year Regional Campuses: Do They Attract a Different Type of Applicant? WMJ 2020 Mar;119(1):22-25

Date

04/30/2020

Pubmed ID

32348067

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-85084169275   3 Citations

Abstract

BACKGROUND: In response to calls to increase class sizes, the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) opened two new 3-year community-based regional campuses in 2016 and 2017. The goal of this study was to analyze whether the applicants and accepted student pools differed for the school's 3-year and 4-year campuses.

METHODS: Deidentified data from Wisconsin applicants to MCW for the class enrolling in 2017 were categorized based on their preference for the Milwaukee or a regional campus. Applicants and admitted student data were compared on Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) score, undergraduate school grade point average (GPA), sex, age, research intensity of their undergraduate school (Carnegie 1 classification vs all others) and Wisconsin county of residency.

RESULTS: Regional campus applicants were significantly older (24.6 vs 23.7, P = 0.023), more likely to reside in nonurban counties (33% vs 13%, < 0.001), attend nonresearch-intense undergraduate schools (65% vs 44%, P < 0.001) and had lower mean MCAT scores (d=0.77, P < .001) than applicants to the Milwaukee campus. Regression models indicated 4 applicant qualities were associated with a preference for 4-year (values > 1.0) or 3-year (values < 1.0) campus: graduation from a Carnegie 1 undergraduate school (OR = 1.626; 95% CI, 1.01 - 2.62), a higher age at the time of application (OR = 1.092; 95% CI, 1.01 - 1.18), total MCAT score (OR = 0.916; 95% CI, 0.89 - 0.95), and permanent residence in a rural Wisconsin county (OR = 0.349; 95% CI, 0.21 - 0.59). When we examined students who were accepted and matriculated as opposed to just applicants, regression models showed that students with higher ages were more likely to attend the 4-year campus (OR = 1.42; 95% CI, 1.15 - 1.76), while a higher total MCAT score (OR = 0.83; 95% CI, 0.76 - 0.91) and rural county residency (OR = 0.27; 95% CI, .1 - 0.73) were associated with atriculation to the 3-year regional campuses.

CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that the regional 3-year campus model is attracting and selecting students with some differences from those at MCW's 4-year campus. After adjusting for other characteristics, students matriculating to the regional 3-year campuses are nearly 4 times more likely to come from a rural county and have slightly higher MCAT scores.

Author List

Hueston WJ, Treat R

Authors

William J. Hueston MD Adjunct Professor in the Family Medicine department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Robert W. Treat PhD Associate Professor in the Academic Affairs department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

College Admission Test
Education, Medical, Undergraduate
Educational Status
Female
Humans
Male
Professional Practice Location
School Admission Criteria
Schools, Medical
Wisconsin
Young Adult