If the Association of American Medical Colleges gets its way, more minorities will soon be applying to medical schools.
The AAMC recently launched a campaign to encourage Latino, black and Native American undergraduates to apply to medical school in greater numbers.
The initiative was prompted by an AAMC study that found that, while the number of minority students studying biology as undergraduates increased from 1993 to 2004, the rate of minority applications to medical schools stayed the same.
And while Penn officials commend the AAMC's efforts, they say Penn's School of Medicine already has effective minority-recruitment strategies in place.
At the Med School, 16.2 percent of students over the past five years have been "underrepresented" minorities, said Gaye Sheffler, the Med School's director of admissions and financial aid.
But Penn's high numbers do not reflect the national average of minority representation in medical schools or in the professional world of doctors.
Latinos, blacks and Native Americans make up 25 percent of the U.S. population but just 12 percent of medical students and 6 percent of practicing doctors, according to the AAMC.
In an effort to give these numbers a boost, the AAMC has designed a free Web site - AspiringDocs.org - that will serve as a comprehensive resource for the complex process of applying to medical schools, said Charles Terrell, who oversees the association's diversity initiatives.
Terrell said that research has shown that many minorities see the cost, time and lifestyle demands of medical school as barriers, and that "these perceived barriers are taking a toll on the numbers."
He said he hopes the AAMC will be able to draw on its established reputation among medical students to bring credibility to the site.
"Students really respect the AAMC," Terrell said, noting that the association sponsors the Medical College Admissions Test that medical-school applicants are required to take.
Back at Penn, however, this site is just one of many initiatives that are available to encourage minority students to apply.
The Office for Diversity and Community Outreach sponsors many recruitment programs each year, said Karen Hamilton, Penn's assistant dean for diversity at the Medical School.
Hamilton pointed out that the Med School was the first among its peers to set up an office with the specific purpose of increasing diversity, in 1968.
These minority-outreach programs include recruiting at historically black colleges and introducing minority applicants to enrolled minority students, Hamilton added.
And Glenn Dym - a second-year Medical student and the co-chairman of the Boricua-Latino Health Organization, a group for Latino Medical students - says he is pleased with these efforts.
"I think Penn's spectacular as far as [minority] resources go," he said.
