Felsher Dean W

Type

White Paper

Summary

The Stanford University School of Medicine is second on the annual top 10 list of best medical schools for Hispanic students in rankings compiled by Hispanic Business magazine.

This is the fourth year in a row that Stanford has ranked either first or second since the magazine began including medical schools among its university rankings in 2005. The 2008 list is published in the September issue of the magazine.

“Stanford had very high marks in all categories, from reputation to retention to enrollment and faculty,” said Michael Caplinger, research supervisor for the company that publishes the magazine. “The school not only already has a good representation of Hispanic students, it is making an effort to keep them and attract more.”

Stanford has a 40-year history of working toward achieving and maintaining diversity, said Fernando Mendoza, MD, professor and chief of the division of general pediatrics and associate dean of minority advising and programs.

“Recognition of success in the area of diversity by Hispanic Business magazine is important to the school,” Mendoza said. “It demonstrates that, as judged by others, we are succeeding.”

Hispanic Business publishes top 10 listings of “Best Schools for Hispanics” at universities across the nation in the fields of business, engineering, law and medicine. The rankings take into account each school’s Hispanic enrollment figures, number of Hispanic faculty, student services and retention rates. The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at Dallas topped the list among medical schools this year.

The Stanford School of Medicine’s Hispanic student population has consistently been about 15 percent since the rankings began in 2005. During the 2007 academic year, 15 percent of the school’s student body was Hispanic, 69 out of a total of 472 students. This year, nine of the entering new medical students are Hispanic out of a class of 86.

“Those of us recruiting medical students in California are still way behind in the number of Hispanic medical students needed to reflect statewide percentages,” Mendoza said. California’s Hispanic population is the largest of any state in the nation, about 36 percent of the total state population.

“California is a place of great diversity,” Mendoza said. “If we’re going to provide efficient, effective care, we have to have a diverse medical school class. We have to be more culturally sensitive and aware in California.”

The medical school launched a concerted effort to increase diversity in 1969, Mendoza said. In 1992, these efforts were further institutionalized with the creation of the Center of Excellence in Diversity, which developed programs for the recruitment, retention and career and leadership development of minority faculty. In 2005, the school created the Office for Diversity and Leadership to further advance these efforts.