title: Application essays and future performance in medical school: are they related?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There is a paucity of research on whether application essays are a valid indicator of medical students' future performance.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The goal is to score medical school application essays systematically and examine the correlations between these essay scores and several indicators of student performance during medical school and internship.
  
  
  METHODS
  A journalist created a scoring rubric based on the journalism literature and scored 2 required essays of students admitted to our university in 1 year (N = 145). We picked 7 indicators of medical school and internship performance and correlated these measures with overall essay scores: preclinical medical school grade point average (GPA), clinical medical school GPA, cumulative medical school GPA, U.S. Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE) Step 1 and 2 scores, and scores on a program director's evaluation measuring intern professionalism and expertise. We then examined the Pearson and Spearman correlations between essay scores and the outcomes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Essay scores did not vary widely. American Medical College Application Service essay scores ranged from 3.3 to 4.5 (M = 4.11, SD = 0.15), and Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences essay scores ranged from 2.9 to 4.5 (M = 4.09, SD = 0.17). None of the medical school or internship performance indicators was significantly correlated with the essay scores.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings raise questions about the utility of matriculation essays, a resource-intensive admission requirement.
authors: Preventive Medicine and Biometrics, Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA. Ting.Dong@usuhs.mil
authors: Ting
authors: T
authors: Dong
authors: Allen
authors: A
authors: Kay
authors: Anthony R
authors: AR
authors: Artino
authors: William R
authors: WR
authors: Gilliland
authors: Donna M
authors: DM
authors: Waechter
authors: David
authors: D
authors: Cruess
authors: Kent J
authors: KJ
authors: DeZee
authors: Steven J
authors: SJ
authors: Durning
mesh_terms: D001076:Aptitude; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D012570:School Admission Criteria; D012577:Schools, Medical; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013337:Students, Medical; D014956:Writing