Association Between a Medical School Applicant’s Community College Attendance and the Likelihood of Application Acceptance: An Investigation of Select Medical School Characteristics

PURPOSE: One-third of medical school applicants attend a community college (CC), and they represent a diverse group of applicants. However, they have a lower likelihood of being accepted to medical school. Using application-level data, this study examines how an applicant’s CC attendance impacts the likelihood of application acceptance and how 3 medical school characteristics moderate this association. METHOD: Data examined were from 2,179,483 applications submitted to at least one of 146 U.S. Liaison Committee on Medical Education–accredited medical schools by 124,862 applicants between 2018 and 2020. The outcome was application acceptance. The main measures were applicants’ CC attendance (no, lower [> 0%–19% of college course hours], or higher [≥ 20%]) and 3 medical school characteristics: geographic region, private versus public control, and admissions policy regarding CC coursework. Multilevel logistic regression models estimated the association between CC attendance and the likelihood of application acceptance and how this association was moderated by school characteristics. RESULTS: Among applicants, 23.8% (29,704/124,862) had lower CC attendance and 10.3% (12,819/124,862) had higher CC attendance. Regression results showed that, relative to no CC attendance, applications with lower (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = .96; 95% confidence internal [CI], .94–.97) and higher (AOR = .78; 95% CI, .76–.81) CC attendance had significantly decreased odds of acceptance when the 3 school characteristics were included. Each of the 3 medical school characteristics significantly moderated the association between an applicant’s CC attendance and the likelihood of application acceptance. CONCLUSIONS: The negative association between CC attendance and medical school application acceptance varies by medical school characteristics. Professional development for admissions officers focused on understanding the CC pathway and potential biases related to CC attendance would likely be beneficial in terms of trying to attract and select a diverse cohort of medical students in a holistic and equitable manner.