Bates beats U.S. average in graduates' acceptance to med programs

Eighty-three percent of Bates College seniors and alumni applying to graduate programs in the health professions were accepted for matriculation in fall 2004.

Seventy-five percent of Bates applicants were accepted into medical or osteopathic schools, vs. a national average of around 49 percent.

Bates students are typically accepted into graduate programs in law and the health professions at a rate higher than the national average. This speaks to both the quality of Bates students and the preparation Bates offers for life after graduation.

The college’s medical studies program helps students satisfy medical school requirements by, for instance, guiding students with their course selection and helping set up job-shadowing or internship opportunities.

The quality of the Bates education is also key to students’ success in these graduate programs. “Bates absolutely prepared me,” says Jessica Walls, a 2003 Bates graduate who is now studying at Dartmouth Medical School and contemplating a career in pediatric oncology.

Likening her academic career to a marathon, Walls adds: “If Bates hadn’t pushed me to work hard, and develop strategies that work best for my learning needs, I don’t think I ever would have broken the 10-mile mark.”

Of the Bates seniors or alumni who applied to 2004 post-graduate programs at allopathic or osteopathic medical school, 15 of 20 applicants were accepted, or 75 percent. For applicants to other health-care programs, such as dentistry, nursing, pharmacology or veterinary medicine, 14 of the 15 Bates students who applied were accepted last year, or 93 percent.

Nationally, in 2004, 17,662 of 35,735 applicants to allopathic medical schools were accepted, or just over 49 percent, according to information from the American Association of Medical Colleges.

Equivalent information for osteopathic schools wasn’t available. However, for the 2002-03 academic year, according to the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine, 3,079 of 6,324 applicants were enrolled in osteopathic schools, or nearly 49 percent. (Note that these applicants were actually enrolled, as opposed to accepted; not all accepted applicants will enroll.)

In law, Bates applicants last year attained higher Law School Admission Test scores than their peers nationally, with an average score of 157.3 for Bates applicants vs. the national average of 152.5. Moreover, Bates students and alumni were accepted to the top tier of law schools including Harvard, the University of Chicago, New York University and the University of Michigan.

“The rigorous undergraduate curriculum at Bates helped prepare me for the intellectual demands of law school,” says Michelle Wong, a member of the Bates class of 1998 and a J.D. candidate at the Northwestern University School of Law. “I learned how to read text critically and defend my ideas — skills that are critical to success in law school.”