The Impact of a Liberal Arts Education on Physician Residency Choice

Multiple studies have found that a student’s undergraduate major has limited impact on her medical school performance. Researchers have not identified a statistically significant difference in honors, academic performance, or clinical performance between medical students with traditional preparation and students who pursued humanities and social science degrees (Muller and Kase 2010; Hall et al 2014). While this research indicates that adequate preparation for medical school is not limited to a strict science curriculum, the anticipated benefits of a liberal arts education may be less significant than humanists have hoped. Not every medical school, however, evaluates the success of its program by the academic and research honors bestowed upon its students. While committed to academic excellence, many U.S. medical schools focus their curricula on preparing and motivating graduates to enter primary care specialties or to serve rural, underserved patient populations. These institutions, therefore, are invested in admissions criteria that can predict post-graduate specialty choice and vocational values. My research evaluates the relationship between undergraduate major, minor, or significant undergraduate coursework in the humanities and residency selection among recent graduates at a medical school that aims “to educate physicians and health professionals to meet the primary care and healthcare needs of rural and medically underserved areas in Georgia.” This project builds on a trend identified by Muller and Kase (2010) that humanities students were more likely to select primary care or psychiatry residencies and a finding by Rifkin et al (2000) that humanities students excelled in psychiatry and pediatric clerkships.

Gabrielle Haynes – Bioethics and Medical Humanities – Mercer University School of Medicine