Progress and pitfalls in underrepresented minority recruitment: Perspectives from the medical schools

Purpose: To assess current initiatives at U.S. medical schools to recruit underrepresented minorities (URM) and to identify perceived barriers to enrollment of URM students. Methods: We developed a survey that was mailed to the dean of Student Affairs of all U.S. allopathic and osteopathic medical schools in 2002. Respondents were asked to list their schools' URM recruitment programs and rate the effectiveness of these programs. They were also asked to indicate barriers to URM recruitment from a list of 37 potential barriers and rate their overall success with URM recruitment. Results: The study had a 59% response rate. All schools reported a wide variety of initiatives for URM recruitment with >= 50% of all schools using each of the 11 strategies. The three most commonly listed barriers to URM recruitment were MCAT scores of applicants (90%), lack of minority faculty (71%) and lack of minority role models (71%). Most schools rated their recruitment efforts highly; on a scale of I to 10 (10 being very successful), the average score was an 8 . Conclusion: While schools continue to invest tremendous efforts in recruiting minority applicants, admissions criteria, lack of URM faculty and the need for external evaluation remain important barriers to achieving a diverse physician workforce.