
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, January 20, 1994                   TAG: 9401200292
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BENJAMIN C. STURGILL
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

NO BIAS AGAINST MOUNTAIN CULTURE

I CANNOT allow the impression created by the Jan. 11 letter to the editor from Frank Kilgore (``Coalfield students are penalized'') in the Roanoke Times & World-News to go unchallenged.

Kilgore suggests that admission to the University of Virginia School of Medicine is adversely influenced by a mountain background. That such is not the case is made evident by the following statistics:

Last year, we received 848 applications from within the state of Virginia, of which 48 were from Southwest Virginia. Nine (18.75 percent) of these 48 matriculated at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Our overall matriculation rate was about 3 percent, and the matriculation rate for Virginians was 11.6 percent. This doesn't suggest that Southwest Virginians are discriminated against.

Admission to the University of Virginia School of Medicine is based upon a number of factors, including academic record, test scores, letters of recommendation, evidence of community service and health-care experience, motivation, communication skills as discovered in interviews, and a number of personal qualities considered essential in a good physician.

There are always more qualified applicants than there are available places, and decisions are based upon a comparison of individuals within the pool of qualified applicants.

A mountain background is obviously compatible with excellent communication skills, but not any more or less than any other background. I hope no Southwest Virginian will be discouraged from applying to the University of Virginia School of Medicine by the inaccurate information contained in Kilgore's letter.

As a native of Southwest Virginia, I'm especially sensitive to generalizations that tend to discriminate on the basis of background. And as chairman of the admissions committee, I can assure Kilgore and your readers that the discrimination to which he alluded doesn't occur in the admissions process at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.

Benjamin C. Sturgill, M.D., is associate dean for admissions and chairman of the admissions committee at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.

by CNB