Keywords

Premedical, pre health, advisors, students, medical school, prerequisite courses, two year colleges

Abstract

Many medical school admissions personnel and pre-health advisors advise premedical students not to take the medical school prerequisite courses at two-year colleges because they believe the courses are less academically rigorous than the same courses at four-year institutions (Losada, 2009; Marie, 2009; Thurlow, 2008, 2009a, 2009b). According to this belief, premedical students who complete the medical school prerequisite courses at a two-year college could be at a disadvantage in regard to medical school admission compared to those students who complete the medical school prerequisite courses at a four-year institution. In an effort to analyze these perceptions, this study examined factors pertaining to the enrollment of premedical students in the medical school prerequisite courses at two-year colleges. This research study examined the enrollment statuses and grades of matriculants to medical school from the University of Central Florida between 2007 and 2011. Specifically, the type of student enrollment of the matriculants who completed any of the medical school prerequisite courses at a two-year college was examined, and both their type of institutional enrollment and grades in the organic chemistry courses were also examined. The results indicated that there were significant differences in types of student enrollment in most medical school prerequisite courses at two-year colleges, and based on these differences, the researcher identified whether completing certain prerequisite courses as certain types of enrollment were either “more acceptable” or “less acceptable” for premedical students. In addition, the results indicated that there were not significant differences in organic chemistry grades based on the type of institution where the courses iv were taken. Based on these results, the researcher could not categorize the courses at either type of institution as “more rigorous” or “less rigorous” than the other, but the researcher also recommends that these results should be perceived cautiously until additional, more in-depth research can be conducted on this topic. Finally, recommendations and implications for premedical students, pre-health advisors, medical school admissions personnel, two-year colleges, and four-year institutions were discussed.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2012

Semester

Fall

Advisor

Cintron Delgado, Rosa

Degree

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

College

College of Education and Human Performance

Department

Educational and Human Sciences

Degree Program

Educational Leadership

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0004579

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0004579

Language

English

Release Date

December 2012

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)

Subjects

Dissertations, Academic -- Education, Education -- Dissertations, Academic

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