Arthur Rosenbaum and the Certification Committee are to be commended for making the certification process more user-friendly. Unhappily, there has been absolutely no change in the proportion of first-time applicants who have been approved.

For the last five years the approval rate for first-time applicants has fluctuated closely around the 60 percent level, with no evidence of any trend toward a change in that level. In May 1996, 61 percent of first-time applicants were approved. Therefore an average of 40 percent of first-time applicants have failed to be approved.

Has this more user-friendly ambience minimized the alienation that was seen earlier after first-time applicants were rejected? We don't know. I suggest the Certification Committee conduct a simple follow-up study to answer that question. What proportion of first-time applicants not accepted in the last three years have reapplied, compared to those who were not accepted during the three years before that? (The follow-up period would need to be the same for the two groups.) Stated conversely, is the number of failed applicants who have become so alienated they have not reapplied for certification smaller for the last three years than for the prior three years?

The project should be feasible, since in a three-year period approximately thirty-five first-time applicants were not approved.

Joseph Schachter