There were 28,123 applicants to US medical schools for the 1987-1988 academic year, a 10% decrease from the 1986-1987 year. Of this number, 17,027 applicants were accepted by at least one school. First-year enrollment equaled 16,686 students, of whom 639 students were repeating the first year. Thus, the number of first-time enrolled students was 16,047. This represents a decrease of 159 new-entry students from the previous year. Over 46% of the students entering medical school in the 1987-1988 academic year had a premedical GPA of 3.50 or higher (on a four-point scale). Eighty-seven percent of US medical schools academically qualified candidates on the basis of noncognitive criteria. In the past five years the number of first-year white male students has decreased by 13.2%, while the number of black male students has decreased by 1% [corrected]. In the same period, the number of white female students increased by less than one tenth of 1%, while the number of black female students has increased by 31.7%. The number of Asians or Pacific Islanders entering US medical schools has more than doubled: the percentage of male students increased by 106.5% and that of female students by 128.4%. The total number of students enrolled in 127 US medical schools in the 1987-1988 year was 65,742; of this number, 22,539 (34.3%) were women. The estimated number of graduates in the 1987-1988 year was 15,947. The total enrollment of students from underrepresented ethnic/racial groups was 6955 (10.6%), of which 4086 (6.2%) were blacks of non-Hispanic origin. The number of new-entry first-year students from underrepresented groups was 1776 (11.1%), of which 1063 (6.6%) were blacks. The number of full-time medical school faculty members was 66,798; another 130,437 were part-time and volunteer faculty members. 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 256 weeks. 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 withdrew temporarily to pursue advanced study or research, has remained at about 2%. Students dismissed because of poor academic standing represent 16% of the total student attrition.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)