Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges · 2026
Giving a boost: a free near-peer advising program for medical school applicants.
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Petigrow Jeffrey, Mittal Arjun, In Emily, Dembinski Robert, Pan Daniel
Аннотация
PROBLEM: One often overlooked cost of the medical school application process is that associated with access to quality premedical advising, which enables applicants to hone their essays and interview skills. To help address this socioeconomic inequity, Giving a Boost (GAB) was created at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine to provide free near-peer application advising to medical school applicants.
APPROACH: Launched in 2020, GAB pairs applicants with medical school mentors who have recently completed the application process (based on shared backgrounds and goals), helping to demystify the admission process and boost applicant confidence. All participation in the program is voluntary; thus, it operates at no cost. Mentors review and edit primary and secondary essays, conduct mock interviews, and advise on letters of interest or intent. Additionally, some mentors facilitate specialized, supplemental workshops focusing on interviewing, letter writing, and reapplication strategies.
OUTCOMES: Over the 2020-2021 to 2022-2023 application cycles, GAB matched 231 applicants with 145 volunteer medical student mentors. In post-cycle surveys, the 67 responding applicants perceived GAB as more helpful (average helpfulness rating of 8.4/10) than other premedical advising resources (eg, friends [7.3/10] or paid consulting services [5.0/10]). The acceptance rate among survey respondents was 72.4% (21/29) in 2020-2021, 90.9% (20/22) in 2021-2022, and 100% (16/16) in 2022-2023-significantly higher than the reported national acceptance rates. Taken together, these findings demonstrate the strong performance of GAB applicants and the high perceived value of the GAB program.
NEXT STEPS: The next steps are to evaluate the efficacy of GAB chapters at other institutions across the country and to focus on recruiting more nontraditional applicants. Additionally, more data should be collected to control for potential confounding variables, such as Medical College Admission Test scores and grade point averages, and to evaluate the potential impact on underrepresented applicants.
APPROACH: Launched in 2020, GAB pairs applicants with medical school mentors who have recently completed the application process (based on shared backgrounds and goals), helping to demystify the admission process and boost applicant confidence. All participation in the program is voluntary; thus, it operates at no cost. Mentors review and edit primary and secondary essays, conduct mock interviews, and advise on letters of interest or intent. Additionally, some mentors facilitate specialized, supplemental workshops focusing on interviewing, letter writing, and reapplication strategies.
OUTCOMES: Over the 2020-2021 to 2022-2023 application cycles, GAB matched 231 applicants with 145 volunteer medical student mentors. In post-cycle surveys, the 67 responding applicants perceived GAB as more helpful (average helpfulness rating of 8.4/10) than other premedical advising resources (eg, friends [7.3/10] or paid consulting services [5.0/10]). The acceptance rate among survey respondents was 72.4% (21/29) in 2020-2021, 90.9% (20/22) in 2021-2022, and 100% (16/16) in 2022-2023-significantly higher than the reported national acceptance rates. Taken together, these findings demonstrate the strong performance of GAB applicants and the high perceived value of the GAB program.
NEXT STEPS: The next steps are to evaluate the efficacy of GAB chapters at other institutions across the country and to focus on recruiting more nontraditional applicants. Additionally, more data should be collected to control for potential confounding variables, such as Medical College Admission Test scores and grade point averages, and to evaluate the potential impact on underrepresented applicants.