OBJECTIVE: To compare U.S. chiropractic college admissions requirements with those of allopathy, osteopathy, optometry, podiatry and dentistry.

DESIGN: Survey.

PARTICIPANTS: The schools that participated in the comparison were selected based on their geographic location within the United States. The number of schools selected were 16 chiropractic college, 17 allopathic colleges, 16 osteopathic colleges, 16 optometric colleges, 7 podiatric colleges and 15 dental colleges.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Information collected from the individual schools included: (a) minimum number of undergraduate semester hours (toward a bachelor's degree) that are required on entrance; (b) actual percentage of applicants with a 4-yr bachelor's degree on entrance; (c) minimum GPA required on entrance and (d) actual average GPA of applicants on entrance.

RESULTS: Averages were computed for each outcome. Overall, allopathic averages were highest and chiropractic averages were lowest for each of the four outcome measures, with the other programs scoring at varying points in between.

CONCLUSION: Successful completion of preprofessional requirements may be an indicator for success within a rigorous professional curriculum. These data reflect overall differences between health-care professions on a very few entrance criteria. Further investigation is needed to understand the long-term impact of these differences as well as the possible economic or political factors that may be influencing these results.

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