Cram Course for Med School

Like most would-be doctors, Dennis Riston, 24, of Robbins, Ill., knew that medical school was going to be tough. But Riston, a graduate of one of the nation's largest predominantly black universities, in Louisiana, was hardly prepared for the obstacles he encountered after he was accepted at Northwestern University Medical School. "It was hell," he says. "I came up the year the black man was In. But I could not cope with the pace."

Aided by Northwestern tutors, Riston finally mastered the study skills he needed to survive, and is now two years away from getting his M.D. He is more fortunate than many of the blacks and other minority-group students admitted to U.S. medical schools in the past several years. Many are graduates of small schools in the South and Southwest that did not provide the scientific background medical students must have. Others were simply unprepared for the work loads in medical school. As a result, a number of minority students have been forced to drop out.

Enrichment Program. Some medical schools, understaffed in the basic sciences and fully occupied with training qualified students, have had to let minority students succeed or fail virtually on their own. One of the most notable exceptions is Harvard University. Since 1969 it has been running a special summer cram course to teach science and biology to black, Puerto Rican and Chicano undergraduates from other colleges. The purpose of this unique enrichment program: to help members of minority groups get into medical school--and stay there.

Headed by Dr. Delano Meriwether,* 30, a black hematologist, Harvard's Health Careers Summer Program accepts youngsters whose grades and motivation make them good physician and dentist material, but whose lack of finances and educational background tends to keep them out of these professions. The university has little trouble finding applicants. In the program's first year, 267 students applied and 55 were accepted. This summer 2,000 applied and 162 were allowed in. Of those in this year's class, 100 are blacks. The rest are Indians, Chicanes, U.S.-born Puerto Ricans and disadvantaged whites.

Those who are admitted to the eight-week program quickly get a taste of the rigors of medical school. Students must attend 50 to 60 hours of lectures, laboratories and tutorials in such subjects as cell biology, chemistry and math. Their teachers are visiting doctors and members of the Harvard faculty. The tutors are themselves members of minority groups.

Student reaction to H.C.S.P. is understandably enthusiastic. Patrick Montoya, 21, of San Juan Pueblo, N. Mex., a senior at New Mexico Highlands University, calls the classes the most useful he has ever taken. "You get to see medical-school professors in action, to see what it will be like in medical school," he says. But he is even more impressed by his visits to hospitals affiliated with Harvard, where he can watch operations and other procedures and visit emergency rooms. "The clinical experiences helped me make up my mind about medicine," Montoya says. "I was kind of shaky before about medicine's being for me, but now I'm positive."

Harvard's program, which has a budget of $1.1 million, offers more than education. Admissions personnel from some 40 medical schools visit the university each summer to interview prospective applicants. Few go away disappointed; the Harvard program's students have a high record of achievement. At least 70% of the graduates who have finished college are now attending medical or dental school, and most are expected to complete their education. Dr. William McLaurin, a hematologist at Boston's Beth Israel Hospital, who runs the summer program's cell-biology course, uses questions from the national medical boards to test both Harvard undergraduates and the minority-program students. The results prove that the program is a remarkable success: the H.C.S.P. group does as well in the exams as the Harvard students.

* Meriwether is best known for breaking the world record in the 100-yd. dash in 1971 at Eugene, Ore. Because the sprint was wind-aided, his time was not officially recognized.

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