Why Not Medicine? Perceived Barriers to Pursuing Medical Degrees in Junior College Students

Abstract

Many academic institutions like Indiana University School of Medicine have created specific programs to increase diversity in admissions of underrepresented minorities. This is often achieved with a master's program designed to increase applicant "competitiveness". The issue that arises is that many of these programs are directed toward students at 4-year colleges or post-baccalaureate programs which excludes students pursuing education at 2-year community colleges without these programs. This is a missed opportunity to increase diversity as 2-year colleges often have higher proportions of underrepresented minorities (22% African American representation at this level of institution compared to 11.3% at 4 year or higher universities).4 A large share also come from low-income families (36.7% of students whose families make less than $20k/year attend 2-year institutions compared with 17.7% of students whose families make more than $100K/year).5,6 Sequela of this lack of resources for these students manifests as lower rates of application to medical school (only 28% of applicants in 2013 had a history of 2-year college attendance).2,3,5 This highlights the need for quality research on this particular subset of health science students not only from a system and access-based approach but also from a motivational standpoint. Junior colleges have some of the most diverse cohorts of students with profound interest in health science yet who often chose pathways other than medical school. So, why not medicine? ​