The EXCEL Program: strengthening diversity

The Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine (BUSDM) initiated a program in the summer of 1993 to strengthen diversity in the entering class of first-year students. The Experiential Center for Excellence in Learning (EXCEL) Program is a voluntary, one-month-long prematriculation experience that combines didactic, laboratory, study skills, and social activities to prepare participants to transition into the rigorous first-year curriculum. From 1996 to 2000, ninety students participated in EXCEL. The two primary reasons cited for participating were to become familiar with the school, faculty, and classmates and to strengthen basic science background. Participants' ages ranged from twenty to over forty. Fifty-nine percent of participants had been out of college for more than one year; 10 percent had been out of school for three years or more. Thirty percent listed nontraditional predental school majors. Fifty-six percent listed a country other than the United States as country of birth. Of those completing an exit survey, 96 percent reported that EXCEL strengthened their decision to study dentistry, and 97 percent would recommend that future entering BUSDM students participate in EXCEL. The EXCEL Program may serve as a model for increasing diversity in U.S. dental school enrollment.