Minorities in Medicine

The key part of our mission is to increase the number of African-American, Latino, and other students of color entering and completing medical school, and to increase the Workforce diversity is it is crucial for reducing and eliminating health disparities.

Research has shown that the number of minorities entering medical school has been declining at a faster rate than the matriculation rates for majority students. According to the AAMC, the percentage of minority applicants accepted to medical school has steadily decreased over 10% since 2010. Physicians of color are more likely to practice in underserved areas reaching underprivileged populations. And of the Black or African-American matriculants, 51.0% or greater planned to practice in an underserved area compared with 44.6% or fewer for other racial and ethnic groups. In 2011, 36% of Hispanic or Latino and 33.6% of American Indian or Alaska Native matriculants reported they were considering practicing in this area as well.

The Minority Association of Premedical Student's (MAPS) goals are to:

To provide underrepresented pre-med students with knowledge, skills, and experience that are both prerequisite & concomitant to professional participation in health care fields
To improve minority student matriculation into all professional health related programs, with an emphasis on medicine
To encourage culturally conscious physicians by increasing awareness of issues that underrepresented communities face