Community college (CC) is important for providing access to educational pathways for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. However, studies show that medical schools are less likely to accept qualified students who went to CC and thus may be missing opportunities to increase the diversity of their student body.

This article describes a study that analyzed data from the 2016-17 application cycle to examine whether CC students were less likely to matriculate into physician assistant (PA) programs and whether those CC students who did matriculate into PA programs increased the diversity of the student body.