Volume 72 Number 5 September 2005	back to contents

1Medical Student, 2Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs, and 3Director, Humanities and Medicine Program, Department of Medical Education, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY.

Address all correspondence to Mary R. Rifkin, Ph.D., Box 1623, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, 1 East 100th Street, New York, NY 10029.

Updated as of February 2005

ABSTRACT

The Summer Enrichment Program (SEP) is a 6-week pre-matriculation program that targets students who may be at an educational disadvantage and/or may have difficulties adjusting to the rigors of medical school. The objective of the current study was to determine whether the SEP (a) eased the transition to the first year of medical school and (b) had an impact on academic performance during the first year of medical school. All students from groups underrepresented in medicine, who had been invited to participate in the SEP, and all Humanities and Medicine Program students who matriculated at Mount Sinai School of Medicine between 1999 and 2003 and were still matriculated during the 2003–2004 academic year were asked to respond to a survey distributed in the spring of 2004. In addition, student academic profiles were reviewed. Responses to the survey indicated that the SEP provided important emotional benefits for those students who chose to attend the program. Virtually all students who had attended had praise for the program and felt that it eased the transition to medical school, helped build confidence and facilitated social connections. In addition, those students from groups underrepresented in medicine who attended the SEP had less academic difficulty (fewer course failures) in their first year of medical school.

KEY WORDS

Underrepresented students, educationally disadvantaged, pre-matriculation program, adjustment to medical school, first-year performance.

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