Ninety-six percent of Bates College seniors and alumni applying to graduate programs in the health professions for fall 2005 matriculation were accepted.

Ninety-one percent of Bates applicants were accepted into medical or osteopathic schools, vs. a national average of around 49 percent, according to a report issued on Oct. 10 by the college's Medical Studies Committee.

Bates students are typically accepted into graduate programs in law and the health professions at a rate higher than the national average. This speaks to both the quality of Bates students and the way Bates prepares students for life after graduation.

The college's medical studies program helps students satisfy medical school requirements by, for instance, guiding students with their course selection and helping set up job-shadowing or internship opportunities.

Of the Bates seniors or alumni who applied to 2005 post-graduate programs at allopathic or osteopathic medical school, 20 of 22 applicants were accepted, or 90.9 percent. For applicants to other health-care programs, such as dentistry, nursing, pharmacology or veterinary medicine, all 23 of the Bates students who applied were accepted this year.

Nationally, in 2004, 17,662 of 35,735 applicants to allopathic medical schools were accepted, or just over 49 percent, according to information from the American Association of Medical Colleges.

Equivalent information for osteopathic schools wasn't available. However, for the 2002-03 academic year, according to the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine, 3,079 of 6,324 applicants were enrolled in osteopathic schools, or nearly 49 percent. (Note that these applicants were actually enrolled, as opposed to accepted; not all accepted applicants will enroll.)

According to the Bates MSC report, the grade point average for students matriculating at medical and osteopathic schools this fall was 3.58.