METHODS Race neutral factors considered included: high school community size; current residence community size; first generation college student; medical specialty preference; bilingual status (Spanish and certain Asian languages). This experimental study was conducted through the Department of Physician Assistant at WSU. Admission policies utilized in 2003 (paper-based applicant criteria heavily weighted toward GPA) were compared to new policies implemented in (expanded criteria with race-neutral factors, still heavily weighted toward GPA) and 2006 (expanded criteria with race-neutral factors, and equalization of GPA with other factors) to determine if there was a relationship in the way policy changed and actual matriculation of URMs in the PA Program of study. The data were analyzed using a chi-square statistic with Fisher’s exact test (Tables 1-2). Race neutral factors considered included: high school community size; current residence community size; first generation college student; medical specialty preference; bilingual status (Spanish and certain Asian languages). CONCLUSIONS Because of the growing minority population in the United States, there is a need to increase diversity among health care providers. There is a preponderance of evidence demonstrating that minority health care providers will return to serve their community. [1] Evaluating and selecting appropriate policies that increase diversity in health profession programs are needed. Continued research is recommended in order to help eliminate healthcare disparities and provide adequate coverage in rural and underserved communities. Project supported by: Physician Assistant Workforce Diversity Grant. US/DHHS, D57HP05123, Richard Muma, Principal Investigator. REFERENCES 1. Smedley BD, Butler AS, Bristow LR: In the nation's compelling interest : ensuring diversity in the health-care workforce. Washington, DC: National Academies Press, Evaluation of a Physician Assistant Student Admission Plan That Considers Race Neutral Factors Daren Badura, MPA, PA-C, Veronica Ramos MPA, PA-C, Richard D. Muma, PhD, MPH, PA-C Department of Physician Assistant College of Health Professions, Wichita State University College of Health Professions, Wichita State University INTRODUCTION Despite the rapid growth of racial and ethnic minority groups in the United States, their representation among the nation’s healthcare professionals has grown only modestly at best over the past 25 years, producing a trend in which the proportion of minorities in the population is unequal to their representation among health professionals. [1] PA educators have been known for their interest in increasing minority and underserved representation among practicing PAs. It is hypothesized that a change in admission processes to increase diversity in PA Programs will likely lead to more underrepresented minorities (URM) applicants, matriculates and graduates. Therefore, the purpose of this project was to evaluate race-neutral admission criteria for PA applicants to see if such policies actually were associated with an increase in diversity among PA student matriculates. RESULTS  The WSU-PA Program’s admission plan that considered race neutral factors did not have a significant impact on increasing the number of URMs accepted into the program.  These data must be viewed with caution as the numbers evaluated were small. DISCUSSION The WSU-PA Program’s admission plan that considered race neutral factors was not significantly related to the number of URMs accepted into the program. In fact, decreased numbers of URMs were noted as being accepted in the latter cohort of students (2008). In reviewing the study, the results were based on a short-term analysis of the effects of a race- neutral admissions policy and longitudinal data should be continually analyzed. However, the importance of this study was reflected by the fact that this is one of the first studies to analyze race-neutral factors in an admission plan to determine if there was a relationship in the way policies changed and actual matriculation of URMs in a PA Program. Table 1 Table 2