Medical Professions Institute (MPI)

Institution:

The University of Texas at El Paso

State:

Texas

Academic Level:

Baccalaureate

Issue Area:

Access

Program Focus:

Health

Website:

https://www.utep.edu/science/mpi/

Key Personnel:

Gail Arnold

Contact Info:

glarnold@utep.edu | 915.747.8027

Overview

In 2002, The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) created the Medical Professions Institute (MPI) to work with students who are interested in pursuing a postgraduate degree in medical, dental, veterinarian, optometry, or physician assistant school. As a Texas border institution, UTEP realizes the challenges and opportunities in educating the Latino population across all majors and colleges. They primarily, however, appreciate the need for Latino health care professionals to serve the growing numbers of Hispanic residents as well as to address the increasing disparity of health care for Hispanics, especially along the border.

Program Description

The Medical Professions Institute is the center on campus for students who wish to pursue postgraduate studies at medical, dental, veterinary, physician assistant, or optometry school. It provides a wide range of clientele-services to some 600 advisees, with programs recruiting from high school student populations. Services include pre-professional advising and applications support, freshman experience coursework, MCAT guidance, early admissions programs, pre-med summer internship, Texas medical school tour, pre-professional student organizations, and professional identity formation activities.

Outcome

By 2007, five years after MPI was launched, UTEP had become the second-largest undergraduate institution in the United States, preparing Mexican American applicants to U.S. medical schools.

The following figures represent the results for one cohort (2009-2014):

48% acceptance rate for MPI students to medical professions schools/programs for 2014 compared to 0% acceptance for non-MPI involved applicants.

Over 65 students participated in competitive biomedical summer internships, including locations like Boston University, UC San Francisco, MIT, Washington DC, and Ireland.

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