There were 31,323 applicants to US medical schools for the 1986-1987 academic year. Of this number, 17,092 were accepted by at least one school. First-year enrollment equaled 16,779. Because some students were repeating the first year, the number of first-time enrolled students was 16,206. This represents a decrease of 131 from the previous year. The number of students enrolled in 127 US medical schools in 1986-1987 was 66,142; of this number 22,082 (33.4%) were women. The estimated number of graduates in 1986-1987 was 15,872. The total enrollment of students from underrepresented ethnic/racial groups was 6650 (10.1%), of which 3853 (5.8%) were blacks not of Hispanic origin. The number of new entry first-year students from underrepresented groups was 1679 (10.4%), of which 987 (6.1%) were blacks. The number of full-time medical school faculty was 63,991; another 130,379 were part-time and volunteer faculty. Medical school faculties also have teaching responsibility for a variety of other students, in addition to patient care and research responsibility. The average time needed to complete the curriculum requirements leading to the MD degree is 152 weeks. Twenty-two medical schools offered a combined college-medical school program. The length of these combined programs averaged 254 weeks. More than 93% of students entering medical school in 1986-1987 had completed at least four years of college. More than two fifths of students had a premedical grade point average of 3.50 or higher. The number of schools offering a Fifth Pathway Program has decreased and the number of applicants for these programs has also declined. The net attrition rate, which excludes students who withdraw temporarily to pursue advanced study or research, has remained at about 2%. Only half of 1% of students were dismissed because of poor academic standing.