Do Medical School Acceptance Rates Reflect Preferences for Preferred Minority Groups? (Yes)

Carpe Diem (blog) ^ | FEBRUARY 11, 2012 | Mark J. Perry

[reaganaut1]

The chart above (click to enlarge) is an update of the chart from this CD post from about a year ago, showing medical school acceptance rates for Asians, whites, Hispanics and blacks based on data from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) for the years 2009-2011 (aggregated).

For 2011, the average GPA of students applying to medical schools was 3.53 and the average total MCAT score was 28, and the chart displays the acceptance rates for students applying to medical schools with average GPAs (3.40-3.59) and average MCAT scores (27-29) in the highlighted blue column, and the acceptance rates for those students with slightly higher and slightly lower than average GPAs and test scores in the other columns. In other words, the table displays acceptance rates by race and ethnicity for students applying to medical school with average academic credentials (or just slightly above or below average). Here are some observations:

1. For those students applying to medical school with average GPAs (3.40 to 3.59) and average MCAT scores (27-29), black applicants were almost three times more likely to be admitted than their Asian counterparts (85.9% vs. 30%), and 2.4 times more likely than their white counterparts (85.9% vs. 35.9%). Likewise, Hispanic students with average GPAs and average MCAT scores were about twice as likely to be accepted as white applicants (68.7% vs. 35.9%), and more than twice as likely as Asian applicants (68.7% vs. 30%).

2. For students applying to medical school with slightly below average GPAs of 3.20-3.39 and slightly below average MCAT scores of 24-26 (first column in the table), black applicants were more than 8 times as likely to be admitted as Asians (67.3% vs. 7.7%), and more than 5 times as likely as whites.

Bottom Line: In my previous post, I concluded that the medical school acceptance data suggest that medical schools must have admission policies that favor blacks and Hispanics over Asian and white students. Even if factors other than GPA and MCAT scores (which are probably the two most important ones) are considered for admission to medical school, wouldn't it still be very hard to conclude that admissions policies to medical schools are completely "race-neutral" and completely free of any racial preferences?

Here's why the issue is important: In some states like California and Michigan, racial preferences in college admissions are prohibited. For example, Proposal 2 in Michigan states:

"The University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Wayne State University (all three have medical schools), and any other public college or university, community college, or school district shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting."

The AAMC doesn't provide acceptance data by individual medical school, so we can't conclude that any of the three medical schools in Michigan are practicing racial favoritism in admissions, but it's clear that Michigan state law now expressly prohibits that practice. And based on national data, is there any conclusion other the obvious one - that U.S. medical schools must be considering race as one important factor in admissions, at least for preferred minority groups (blacks and Hispanics) over non-preferred minority groups (Asians) and whites?

[reaganaut1]

Obamacare has incentives for medical schools that will increase racial preferences, as discussed in a previous FR thread .

[illiac]

Our nephew in CA was denied admission to med school over minorities and other foreign students who were awarded free tuition....he is still looking for a good medical school....

[from occupied ga]

This has been going on for a long time. Anectdotal evidence: Some years ago I went to the ER with fever, cough, and painful difficult breathing. The ER doc on call a black female - double quota hit, ordered a CXR and then looked at it saying "I don't see anything, but we'll keep you overnight." Later that night, the guy I had been going to see for blood pressure control (Indian) dropped by, and I didn't know how he know I was there, but drop by he did. He took one look at the CXR and said pneumonia. He showed me a whitish patch that even I could tell wasn't the way it was supposed to be. He put me on an antibiotic drip, and I was released 48 hours later, much poorer, but healthier.

That one BF at least was totally unable to diagnose pneumonia from an xray that was fairly obvious.

[Maverick68]

Comforting to think that the person cutting on you might not be as qualified to do the job as he/she could be...

[bigdirty]

I’ve had this happen to me personally.

Myself and a friend of mine both applied with similar grades and extracurricular work. He’s 1/4 black and put himself as African-American. He got interviews everywhere and was accepted. I didn’t get a single interview. Our GPAs were around 3.4 each, mine being 3.41. The best I got was to come and sit in the administrative office and wait to maybe get an interview if someone didn’t show up for their scheduled session. As if someone isn’t going to show up to possibly get into med school...

Many doctors or practitioners in general are imcompetent and simply rely on pubmed or the like to make diagnosese. The same can be said for physiotherapists, etc.

[angcat]

I told my daughter to check “Hispanic” on all her college applications after all our Italian name can also pass for Spanish.

[G Larry]

My Step-Daughter has experienced this bias, but I believe I see a solution.

Applications don’t say “Black”, they say “African-American”.

My Step-Daughter has vacationed in Africa, with her Mother and Sister.

I conclude this makes her MORE “African-American” than 95% of Blacks in this country!
Will have her check the box and include a photo-copy of her passport stamp, for her next application.

[EQAndyBuzz]

“Our nephew in CA was denied admission to med school over minorities and other foreign students who were awarded free tuition....he is still looking for a good medical school....”

He should be looking for a good attorney.

[EQAndyBuzz]

“Our nephew in CA was denied admission to med school over minorities and other foreign students who were awarded free tuition....he is still looking for a good medical school....”

He should be looking for a good attorney.

[douginthearmy]

This tells me one thing. Whatever I do, I need to seek out an Asian doctor. Just think how smart that SOB had to be just to get into med school against those odds.

[Jvette]

I have no doubt that there is discrimination against white males in the med school admission process.

My son is waiting to learn whether or not he will be offered admission to med school. GPA 3.8 from Pepperdine University and MCAT score of 32.

He applied to 18 schools at a cost of thousands of dollars for the initial application and secondaries at all eighteen schools.

Out of the eighteen, he has been on 9 interviews.

So far, he has been wait-listed or given alternate status at 4 schools. We have not heard from the other 5 as yet.

In our home state, he applied and got an interview at University Nevada Reno. It is a small program, but we thought that since he is a native Nevadan, comes from a school district that is poor, at best, and a high school that has been taken over by the federal government for failing to make adequate progress three years in a row, he would have a better than good chance of acceptance because of his grades and MCAT score.

Well, one of the women that was interviewed on the same day as he was has already received her acceptance. Not a Nevadan, nor with numbers as good as his, but she has gotten her golden ticket.

A little humorous anecdote....When he was interviewed at UCLA, there was only one other white, a woman. The rest of the interviewees were black or Asian. One young man from India was friendly with my son and they spent the day together. Of course they discussed the chances of being accepted. The young man told my son that American medical schools are so saturated with kids from India and Pakistan that it was almost impossible for someone from there to get in nowadays. LOL

If one is a white American male, without a “hook”, something that one has overcome, or some tragic event in one’s life, there is almost no chance of getting accepted.

I joked one time that he should have written that he is gay as one of the answers in the secondary apps. It’s not like you would have to prove it or anything I told him. But, hey it just might have worked.

[RJS1950]

This goes back at least to 75 and the Bakke case. The black student who was admitted in his place eventually had his license removed for gross incompetence and inability to perform even basic medical procedures; a good example of what you get from a lot of affirmative action.

This is not just about race. Gender is also a part of this scam. We still hear all of the pleading about how we have to make it more equal for women when women are now a majority in terms of high school graduation, college attendance and graduation as well as admission to professional schools.

[BuffaloJack]

My daughter, a recent nursing school graduate, and many of her classmates complained to their school when the school allowed the passing grade for gays and lesbians to be ten points lower than the minimum grades the rest of the students needed for graduation. The administration said there was nothing they could do about it. The Federal purse string people were the cause.