Blueprint Prep, a premier education company specializing in support for lifelong professional advancement and test preparation, has formed a partnership with Comprehensive Medical Mentoring Program (CMMP) to provide scholarships to CMMP’s members. The agreement gives aspiring medical students free or heavily discounted access to Blueprint’s MCAT preparation course, which includes not only resources for the test itself but also workshops and admissions assistance.   

The CMMP scholarship program is the latest in a series of initiatives by Blueprint to make access to the medical and legal fields more equitable. As data from around the country reveals an ongoing lack of diversity in these fields, Blueprint has taken steps to direct support toward students from underrepresented groups. Explanations for the lack of diversity often cite the high cost of admissions testing and the complexity and unfamiliarity of the admissions process in general, especially for first-generation students. To help remove these barriers to entry, Blueprint has already formed partnerships similar to the CMMP agreement with other student organizations, including NBLSA, SNMA, UCLA Law Fellows, and UC Berkley Underground Scholars.  

“We want to ensure that every individual who dreams of becoming a physician or lawyer has the support they need, from the day they decide to pursue these professions to the day they retire,” says Matt Riley, CEO and Co-Founder of Blueprint Prep. “We are honored to work with a number of amazing organizations. We are confident these scholarships will help CMMP’s members gain entry to some of the best medical schools in the country.”   

Although consumers in law and medicine come from a wide range of racial and socioeconomic backgrounds, providers of these services mostly do not. As a result, experts have raised concerns that this discrepancy might impair professionals’ ability to provide sound legal counsel or knowledgeable medical care. In 2018, the American Bar Association reported that 85 percent of practicing U.S. lawyers were white, and the Association of American Medical Colleges found that only five percent of physicians were Black.   

Blueprint’s scholarship programs open a key pathway toward alleviating these disparities and building a diverse skilled workforce that can communicate effectively with those it serves. “Preparing for the MCAT is very difficult,” notes physician and CMMP Board of Directors Chairwoman, Lauren Payne. “It's extremely difficult to do without some kind of support, whether that be financial support or organizational guidance about the vast amounts of material that students have to learn. I believe this partnership with Blueprint Prep will improve access to valuable tools and give a lot of students the confidence to succeed on the MCAT or on their boards.”  

The model Blueprint employs in creating its test prep and lifelong professional development courses features a number of improvements on traditional learning resources. Entertainment and cutting-edge content production are prioritized in course development without sacrificing comprehensiveness or rigor, while video-based lectures and gamification help students stay focused, retain information, and deepen their practical understanding of important concepts.  

An advocate of customized support for individual learners since its beginnings, Blueprint favors flexible course schedules—including asynchronous and virtual bichronous formats—and AI-powered assessments that tailor questions and problems to a given user. In addition, the company recruits educators with elite 99th percentile scores to design and lead courses, offers one-on-one tutoring sessions with those educators, and takes frequent assessments to ensure students are on track with their programs.  

All these features add up to an experience that underrepresented learners are finding valuable. “I'm very grateful to them for taking the time to think through who would benefit most from the access to resources that others might have by default,” says Saman Haddad, a Blueprint Prep scholarship winner, UCLA Law Fellow and soon-to-be student at Yale Law School. “I'm just grateful to them for that process and that intentionality, and for connecting with a community of students who need help.” 

To learn more about the high-quality support and instruction that Blueprint Prep offers aspiring medical and legal students, visit https://blueprintprep.com/about.