Education and career paths of LSU's summer science program students from 1985 to 1997.

Since 1985, the Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans, through its Office of Community and Minority Health Education, has operated the Summer Science Program for Louisiana high school students from underrepresented minorities. The authors conducted a survey during the 1997-98 academic year of the 773 students who had participated in the summer program from 1985 to 1997. The goal was to learn what education and career paths these students had taken since leaving the program. A total of 665 students (89.4%) responded. Sixty-one were still in high school, 11 had not continued their education after completing high school, but 432 of the remaining 583 students had chosen education paths in medicine, another health profession, or science, and 31 were enrolled in or had graduated from medical school. These findings indicate that the majority of the summer program students had maintained the health and/or science career interests they had expressed during their time in the program. Future studies will use control groups to better ascertain how influential the summer program was in helping students choose and maintain science and health education and career paths.

Simulated minority admissions exercise at Louisiana State University School of Medicine: an evaluation.

The Louisiana State University (LSU) School of Medicine-New Orleans has been active in recruiting minority students to create a diverse medical student body. Recognizing the need to explore ways to assess minority applicants, over the past 10 years, LSU has offered Stimulated Minority Admissions Exercise (SMAE) workshops to its admission committee members. Participants in six of LSU's SMAE workshops were asked to respond anonymously to an evaluation form immediately following the workshop. Sixty of the 64 participants responded. The overall evaluation of the workshops was positive. More than 80% of participants indicated that due to their participation in SMAE, they knew how to locate and assess application data particularly relevant to minority applicants. The results suggest that identifying variables that enhance minority student admission and retention is desirable.

The effects of certain student and institutional characteristics on minority medical student specialty choice.

This article investigates the possible effects of minority status, presence of a Minority Affairs Office or Student National Medical Association (SNMA) Chapter, level of indebtedness, and number of years (4 to 5) to complete medical school on specialty choice of minority medical students. The 5-year experiences of 20 medical schools in the southern region (including three in Puerto Rico) were examined via a questionnaire. Information was sought for African Americans, Afro-Caribbean, Mexican American, other minority, and nonminority students. Minority graduates entered the specialities of internal medicine, pediatrics, and family medicine in far greater numbers than any other speciality. Also, the percentage of minorities who entered these fields was greater than the percentage of non-minorities. Conversely, minorities were significantly underrepresented in the surgical subspecialties and radiology. Additional study is needed to further examine the medical school experience for indications of why the clustering in primary care specialities occurs. Moreover, while most schools had some kind of minority affairs organization, few were active in the writing of the Dean's letter. Other suggestions to assure adequate minority representation across specialties include early exposure to the different specialties and subspecialties for minority students, a mentorship program with practicing physicians, and stronger recruitment of minorities into underrepresented specialties.