Diverse Perspectives

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Ohio State strives to represent the wonderfully diverse tapestry of our world. Students here reflect racial and ethnic diversity, but also diversity of cultures, geographic origin, age, and experiences. This mosaic of perspectives not only enriches you personally -- it also prepares you for practice with a patient population growing more varied each day.

The Office for Diversity and Cultural Affairs promotes recruitment efforts and educational experiences that create a diverse student body and an interest in meeting the health care needs of underserved areas. The curriculum fosters your understanding of all the factors that influence health, including culture – a significant determinant of one's beliefs, biases and behaviors.

In order to be effective, physicians must understand the knowledge, attitudes and practices patients bring from their cultures. It's not uncommon during the course of a day for a physician to treat patients who are urban, rural, wealthy, poor, young, elderly, Muslim, Hindu, Catholic or Jewish. You might see patients from developing countries, from various ethnic groups, patients who do not speak English or who are part of a non-traditional family structure.

At Ohio State, you'll develop the competence to provide outstanding care to diverse patient populations. You'll have many opportunities to grow these skills -- at Ohio State clinics serving Latino and Asian patients, with geriatric patients in retirement centers, and in settings like University Hospital East, an Ohio State facility located in an underserved urban area.

This attention to the importance of diverse experiences and valuing all cultures is why Ohio State’s College of Medicine was named one of the Top 10 Medical Schools for Hispanics by Hispanic Business magazine in 2005.

Promoting excellence and diversity in education is also highly valued by the University, as Ohio State is among the national leaders in granting doctoral degrees to underrepresented minorities.  To help connect you with others interested in pursuing a career in medicine, The Association of American Medical Colleges launched a campaign to increase diversity in medicine - AspiringDocs.org.  This resource can help you get connected, get inspired, and help as you prepare for medical school. 

2007 Entering Class Snapshot:
Men: 56 % Women: 44 % Underrepresented minorities: 10 % Age range: 22-37	The undergraduate institutions of entering students included, among others: Brigham Young, Brown, UC-Berkeley, UCLA, Cornell, Dartmouth, Davidson, Duke, Emory, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Miami (Ohio), University of Michigan, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Vassar, and Yale. Undergraduate majors represented such varied disciplines as anthropology, biochemistry, biology, biomedical engineering, economics, foreign language, genetics, history, microbiology, physics, political science and zoology.. Student experiences featured a poetry competition winner, personal trainer, EMT, Eagle Scout, ESPN Academic All-American for Women's Cross Country, women's rowing team, translator, USAA All American Scholar, certified AIDS instructor, martial arts, construction worker, middle school wrestling coach.

The number of Hispanics in the Columbus metropolitan area doubled between
the 1990 and 2000 U.S. Census. Columbus is also home to the second largest Somali
population in the country. Ohio State's special population and free clinics help address
the health care needs of these and other groups, and provide great clinical and
cultural experiences for medical students.