Academic difficulty of women, minority, and older medical student subgroups: a study of incidence and recovery

Despite many retention studies, little is known about the performance of students in academic difficulty (SDs) who recover and graduate. In this study (1973-1982), the authors tracked 213 women, minorities, and older students in academic difficulty, those with three or more failures. Improvement measures were retention, National Board scores, and class rank at graduation.Minority students had significantly more difficulty, lower retention, and impaired recovery. Older students had considerable difficulty, but those who survived did well. Sixty-eight percent of majority women, 54 percent of all majorities, and 14 percent of minority women SDs recovered completely, graduating with a class rank of average or above. Minority men made significantly better recovery than minority women. Minority women's complete recovery rate rose from 6 to 23 percent. Incidence of difficulty for minorities decreased, though not significantly.Results suggest that many minority students, especially women, experience academic difficulty and have trouble recovering, but that the situation is ameliorating over time.