The influence of MCAT and GPA preadmission academic metrics on interview scores

Medical school admissions interviews are used to assess applicants’ nonacademic characteristics as advocated by the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Advancing Holistic Review Initiative. The objective of this study is to determine whether academic metrics continue to significantly influence...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Advances in health sciences education : theory and practice 2018-03, Vol.23 (1), p.151-158
Main Authors: Gay, Steven E., Santen, Sally A., Mangrulkar, Rajesh S., Sisson, Thomas H., Ross, Paula T., Zaidi, Nikki L. Bibler
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic achievement
Admission Criteria
College Admission
College Applicants
College Entrance Examinations
Correlation
Education
Grade Point Average
Holistic Approach
Interviews
Medical Education
Medical Schools
Regression (Statistics)
Scores
Undergraduate Study
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Summary:Medical school admissions interviews are used to assess applicants’ nonacademic characteristics as advocated by the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Advancing Holistic Review Initiative. The objective of this study is to determine whether academic metrics continue to significantly influence interviewers’ scores in holistic processes by blinding interviewers to applicants’ undergraduate grade point averages (uGPA) and Medical College Admission Test (MCAT). This study examines academic and demographic predictors of interview scores for two applicant cohorts at the University of Michigan Medical School. In 2012, interviewers were provided applicants’ uGPA and MCAT scores; in 2013, these academic metrics were withheld from interviewers’ files. Hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to examine the influence of academic and demographic variables on overall cohort interview scores. When interviewers were provided uGPA and MCAT scores, academic metrics explained more variation in interview scores (7.9%) than when interviewers were blinded to these metrics (4.1%). Further analysis showed a statistically significant interaction between cohort and uGPA, indicating that the association between uGPA and interview scores was significantly stronger for the 2012 unblinded cohort compared to the 2013 blinded cohort (β = .573, P  
ISSN:1382-4996
1573-1677
DOI:10.1007/s10459-017-9779-9