What’s in a Number? The Impact of the New Federal Guidelines on Collecting and Reporting Racial and Ethnic Data on Enrollment in Graduate Professional Schools

• In Event: Characteristics of Students in Professional Education Programs

Abstract

This paper examines the impact the federally mandated changes in the collection and reporting of racial and ethnic data will have on public policy; higher education institutional administrators, higher education associations, and higher education policy researchers. The impact of these changes is already being seen in dental and medicals schools. Medical schools first began requiring applicants to utilize the new format in 2002 and dental schools recently made the change in 2010. The paper utilizes applicant and enrollment data in dental and medical schools to answer three critical questions: what do the changes in race/ethnicity reporting mean for specific ethnic groups; how do these changes affect institutional data; and what are the implications for national trend analysis?

Authors

• Eugene L. Anderson, American Dental Education Association

• Gloria Gonzalez, American Dental Education Association

• Erin W. Bibo, University of Maryland - College Park

• Nan Zhou, American Dental Education Association