title: Alternate list matriculants: outcome data from those medical students admitted from the alternate list.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Medical schools are increasing class size to meet future health care needs for our nation. This may lead to more students being accepted from an alternate list (vs. primary acceptances). Given these trends, performance outcomes were compared for alternate list matriculants and primary acceptances. Our hypothesis was that those students accepted from an alternate list would perform equally to the primary acceptances on these outcomes.
  
  
  METHODS
  We compared medical school performance of students who received a primary recommendation of "accept" and compared them to those who received a recommendation of "alternate" over a 10-year period. Given the small sample size of this alternate list group (N = 23), descriptive statistics are reported.
  
  
  RESULTS
  No consistent differences between alternate and primary acceptance matriculants in terms of cumulative medical school grade point average, United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1 scores and USMLE Step 2 Clinical Knowledge scores were found. Only three alternates (13.0%) were presented to student promotion committee compared to 17.2% for matriculants who were primary acceptances. Three alternates were required to repeat a year (average percentage of 8.7%) compared to 5.6% of matriculants who were primary acceptances.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This observational study provides some reassurance that as long as the qualifications of the applicant pool remain adequate, admissions policies that provide for alternate list acceptances may not produce poorer performing students, at least by our current outcome measures.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, 620 John Paul Jones Circle, Portsmouth, VA 23708, USA.
authors.forename: Dinchen A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Jardine
authors.forename: Ting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.forename: Anthony R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Artino
authors.forename: Steven J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Durning
authors.forename: Donna M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Waechter
authors.forename: Kent J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: DeZee
authors.forename: David F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Cruess
authors.forename: William R
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Gilliland
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008887:Military Medicine; D010560:Personnel Selection; D012570:School Admission Criteria / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012577:Schools, Medical; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult