Shifting Patterns in the Premedical Education of African Americans and the Role of the HBCU

Abstract

In today's highly competitive educational environment, becoming a physician requires that the students attend a high school that offers both a challenging curriculum and advanced course work. Ideally, the learning will occur in classroom environments with certified and nurturing teachers. Once accepted to college the students must survive two years of intense science coursework across the three disciplines of Biology, Chemistry and Physics and maintain a grade point average (GPA) of 3.5 or better. Still very few African American students reach these final steps on the challenging road to a career in medicine. This paper describes some of the historical and contemporary barriers African American physicians have faced as well as their underrepresentation as medical students including the differences in acceptance rates. The paper also discusses the impact of undergraduate science education on African American students’ medical school admissions. The importance of this review relates to the fact that there is currently an insufficient number of physicians and that African American physicians are underrepresented in that group.