When are students most at risk of encountering academic difficulty?
The authors carried out the study reported here to assess which variables are most predictive of the risk of medical students’ experiencing academic difficulties and to assess when these students are most susceptible to encountering those difficulties. The entering class of 1992 was chosen as the study population because it was the first matriculating class in which the majority of students (88%) applied to medical school with scores from the revised Medical College Admission Test (MCAT), first implemented in 1991. The primary event of interest in this study was the first occurrence of one of the following events because of academic difficulty: withdrawal, leave of absence, dismissal, or delay of graduation date. The variables examined were MCAT scores undergraduate science GPA, undergraduate institutional selectivity, undergraduate major, racial-ethnic background, sex, and age upon entering medical school. Survival analysis was used to assess which variables were most predictive of th
