Getting into Medical School in the Good Old Days: Good for Whom?: The First Nicholas E. Davies Memorial Lecture

doi:10.1059/0003-4819-119-11-199312010-00012

History of Medicine

Getting into Medical School in the Good Old Days: Good for Whom?: The First Nicholas E. Davies Memorial Lecture

Gert H. Brieger, MD, PhD

From The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland. Requests for Reprints: Gert H. Brieger, MD, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of History of Science, Medicine, and Technology, 1900 East Monument Street, Baltimore, MD 21205.

Abstract

Admission to medical school became selective in the 1920s and by the 1960s became increasingly expensive for applicants. The stories of three applicants, a white man who easily walked into medical school in 1908, a black woman who overcame a double hurdle in the 1930s, and a white man who entered medical school by court order, provide insight into the admissions process and its changes.