Comparison of Medical School Performance between Students Admitted Through Two Different Admission Routes

Students in the Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME) at Brown University enroll in a combined eight-year baccalaureate/medical degree program. There are no grade point average requirements or medical college admission test requirements for students admitted in the PLME. There are few studies comparing outcome measures between students admitted through standard routes of admission to medical school and those admitted through combined baccalaureate/medical degree programs such as the PLME. Our purpose was to determine whether students admitted through the Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME) performed as well on both cognitive outcome measures (such as pre-clinical performance, clinical performance and performance on licensing examinations) and non-cognitive outcome measures (such as admission to the Golden Humanism Society and professionalism ratings) as standard admission students. We compared students admitted to the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University (AMS) through the PLME (n=184) and through the standard admission route (n=87). Members of the graduating classes of 2010, 2011 and 2012 were compared for a number of cognitive and non-cognitive measures, including preclinical Year 1 and Year 2 average examination grades, licensing examination scores (both Step 1 and Step 2), admittance into honor societies such as Alpha Omega Alpha and the Golden Humanism Society, and competitive residency specialty placements.