Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
Mental health conditions can impact college students’ social and academic achievements. As such, students may disclose mental illnesses on medical school applications. Yet, no study has investigated to what extent disclosure of a mental health condition impacts medical school acceptance. We designed an audit study to address this gap. We surveyed 99 potential admissions committee members from at least 43 unique M.D.-granting schools in the U.S. Participants rated a fictitious portion of a medical school application on acceptability, competence, and likeability. They were randomly assigned to a condition: an application that explained a low semester GPA due to a mental health condition, an application that explained a low semester GPA due to a physical health condition, or an application that had a low semester GPA but did not describe any health condition. Using ANOVAs, multinomial regression, and open-coding, we found that committee members do not rate applications lower when a mental health condition is revealed. When asked about their concerns regarding the application, 27.0% of participants who received an application that revealed a mental health condition mentioned it as a concern; 14.7% of participants who received an application that revealed a physical health condition mentioned it as a concern. Committee members were also asked about when revealing a mental health condition would be beneficial and when it would be detrimental. This work indicates that medical school admissions committee members do not exhibit a bias towards mental health conditions and provides recommendations on how to discuss mental illness on medical school applications.
