What is Academic Preparation

Medical educators have long debated how to address one pivotal question: Which students will succeed in medical school? Traditionally, the approach to guaranteeing success in undergraduate medical education focused heavily on a rigorous admissions process. While student selection processes have evolved over time, so have the multiple categories of interventions to prepare students for success in medical school. These interventions are most often aimed at enhancing either academic or emotional preparedness in future or current students and are perhaps best described as early medical education readiness interventions. This chapter organizes these programs into the three overarching categories of preadmissions, prematriculation, and postmatriculation interventions, and will discuss the history and current landscape of each of these categories in detail. Further, the authors make recommendations for medical school administrators and directors of such programs to consider when designing their institutional approach to early medical education readiness interventions.