Posted on 09/07/2018 8:23:08 PM PDT by Altura Ct.
Senior medical student Giselle Lynch has plenty of accomplishments to list when she applies for a coveted spot in an ophthalmology residency program this fall.
But one box she won't be able to check when she submits her application is one of the highest academic awards medical students can receive, election to the honor society Alpha Omega Alpha.
It's not because she didn't excel. It's because her medical school, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, put a moratorium on student nominations because it determined the selection process discriminates against students of color.
The award is open to the top 25 percent of a medical school's graduating class and can be a valuable career boost, making students more competitive for desirable residencies and jobs.
Icahn administrators say the disparities in the selection process reflect deeper issues of racial inequality in medical education.
"AOA perpetuates systems that are deeply flawed," says Dr. David Muller, the dean for medical education at Icahn. "We can't justify putting people who are historically at a disadvantage at an even greater disadvantage. It just doesn't seem fair to dangle in front of our students an honorific that we know people are not equally eligible for."
Enlarge this image "AOA is an award of student excellence," says Lynch, who led student efforts at Icahn to fight racial inequality at the school. "What was the argument that was being perpetuated about us if we're not being included?" Gabriela Bhaskar for NPR Over the past five years, around 3 percent of students chosen for the distinction at Icahn were from a racial background that is underrepresented in medicine, which includes blacks and Latinos. In that same period, about 18 percent to 20 percent of each graduating class at Icahn came from those groups.
The school made the change after Lynch led a group of fellow students in an effort to fight inequality at Icahn. The students collected data on how many students from underrepresented minorities were nominated to the honor society at Icahn and presented it in a series of meetings with school leadership last year.
Lynch, who is black, recalls one particularly moving meeting when they showed photographs of Icahn's past AOA students — and black and Latino faces were conspicuously sparse.
"Where are we? We're nowhere here," says Lynch, remembering her reaction. "AOA is an award of student excellence. What was the argument that was being perpetuated about us if we're not being included?"
Announced in May of this year, the decision at Icahn was a controversial one, because many students and faculty fear that not participating in the award puts Icahn students at a disadvantage when competing for slots in residency programs.
After Charlottesville, A Doctor Reflects On Hateful Patients And His Own Biases SHOTS - HEALTH NEWS After Charlottesville, A Doctor Reflects On Hateful Patients And His Own Biases The honor society has existed since 1902 and is a sought-after line on the résumés of medical students across the country. Membership can help students secure training in competitive specialties and is a predictor of success in academic medicine.
Membership is generally open to the top 25 percent of medical students in a graduating class, as determined by their grades and scores on standardized tests, but only about 16 percent makes it in. Each medical school has its own criteria for making final selections including qualities like leadership or professionalism.
Can’t expect her to know that. LOL
It doesn’t matter. The one who graduates at the bottom of their medical class still gets to put the letters Dr. after their name.
The graduating classes of 18-20% may only be that way because of affirmative action. If admissions were completely blind and based on objective standards only, it could very well be 3%
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What is scary is that over 96% of students admitted to medical school end up graduating. The stats on the 3 plus percent that don’t graduate include those who voluntarily drop out after finding out medicine wasn’t their “cup of tea”. Remember the old joke “What do you call the med school graduate with the lowest grades? Answer: Doctor.”.
Patients BEWARE!
It doesn’t say whether she deserved her med school spot OR deserves an AOA membership, but if she doesn’t, there goes some white or Asian person’s ophthalmology career. Surely she doesn’t expect a free pass to a very competitive field?! /s
“Blacks are destroying civil society in a very slow way”
My dear man, it is NOT the blacks. It is the Communists/Radical Left, and they’ve got their collective foot on the gas. With the Jihadis riding shotgun.
We need different countries from these people. Nothing else will fix this.
“Now, you must assume an M.D. of such a group was given their degree without having earned it.”
Yep - at this point, one either has to see a picture, or look for Jewish, Indian, or Asian names before selecting a doctor.
Otherwise, they’re playing with fire.
Being the best at what you do doesn’t count if you ain’t some other color....and they wonder why tings keep getting worse.
Did they do DNA testing on all of their students? I'd bet more than $0.05 that it's higher than 3%.
I'm guessing that they used self-identification, which is quite often inaccurate. What box did the student check on the application?
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And probably a lot higher under the traditional Democrat "one drop of blood" criteria.
Objectivity is Racist!
Logic will not be tolerated in the new Utopia, unless it happens to support the Party’s political judgement.
Yes.
I’ve seen that chart and read the scientific article reporting these results.
I don’t know how the liberal racists react to this.
One day in the future, as Ms. Lynch is being prepped for her bypass surgery, it would be real justice if the RN getting her ready whispers “Oh, by the way, your surgeon got into Med School on an affirmative action quota”...
Just sayin’...
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