This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related articles  • Similar articles in JAMA  Topic Collections  • Medical Practice  • Law and Medicine  • Medical Education  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

To the Editor: Dr Cohen¹ argued that the US Supreme Court should not abandon affirmative action in medical school admissions. I agree with Cohen that the medical profession both benefits and is benefited by society, and thus selection criteria for medical school must not disallow segments of that society from gaining access.

During the Supreme Court hearing, much attention will be focused on the grade point average (GPA) and Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) scores. Although it is known that applicants of certain minorities have lower scores,² those 2 criteria have uncertain relevance in selecting the best candidates for the profession. The discrepancy between the high matriculation rate (90%) and significantly average lower MCAT and GPA scores in the underrepresented minority populations certainly points out the inadequacy of those 2 criteria in predicting medical school performance.^3-4 That is not surprising, considering that "medicine" is actually a collection of multiple professions . . . [Full Text of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

RELATED ARTICLES

Affirmative Action in Medical School Admissions
Robert A. Beltran
JAMA. 2003;289(23):3084-3085.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Affirmative Action in Medical School Admissions
James Ryan
JAMA. 2003;289(23):3085.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Affirmative Action in Medical School Admissions
Harry C. Miller
JAMA. 2003;289(23):3085-3086.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Affirmative Action in Medical School Admissions
Arnold Goldberg
JAMA. 2003;289(23):3086.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Affirmative Action in Medical School Admissions
Matthew J. Heider
JAMA. 2003;289(23):3086.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Affirmative Action in Medical School Admissions
Lorenz Ramseyer
JAMA. 2003;289(23):3086.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Affirmative Action in Medical School Admissions—Reply
Jordan J. Cohen
JAMA. 2003;289(23):3086-3087.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

The Consequences of Premature Abandonment of Affirmative Action in Medical School Admissions
Jordan J. Cohen
JAMA. 2003;289(9):1143-1149.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT