Determining and Prioritizing Admission Criteria for Talented Students Office in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences Using Analytical Hierarchy Process Model

Introduction: Students' scores on university entrance exam (Conquer) or their average scores are not appropriate criteria to recognize them as talented students. There have been limited studies concerning the comparison analysis of factors for selecting medical students as talented. This study was done to determine and prioritize the selection criteria for admitting students to the talented students' office. Methods: A group of 5 physicians having experience in medical education was established. Renzulli model was selected as the best descriptive model, then using brain-storming, the features of a talented student were identified. Based on Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), the questionnaires were designed and distributed among 21 experts. Using hierarchical analysis formula and by Excel software, the weight of each criterion was calculated. To define the weights of the sub-criteria, the detailed features of each criterion were determined and then, the total score of each sub-criterion was calculated by multiplying the score achieved in the first hierarchical analysis by the score attained in the second one. Results: Creativity had the maximum score (38%), being responsible and prominent, were in second place acquiring 31% of the total weight. The highest grades belonged to registration of invention (127), cooperation in writing books and articles (104), and having high rank in Olympiads (92), respectively. The educational status which previously was the only admission criterion was in the fourth position, after having high rank in Olympiads. Conclusion: The areas of creativity, responsibility and being prominent were the main criteria for talented students' admission and there was not any significant difference between their scores. The educational status had a less important role in the prioritization system of this study. It seems that a student is required to have the three main criteria to be recognized as talented.