Medical Schools Quietly Maintain Affirmative Action

Some still use race to make admissions decisions even though the Supreme Court said it’s illegal

By Jason L. Riley. Excerpts:

"at 22 of the [23] schools Asian and white applicants who were accepted had higher Medical College Admission Test scores than their black peers."

"at 13 of the schools, the average MCAT score of Asian and white applicants who were rejected was higher than the average MCAT score of black applicants who were accepted."

"Four historically black medical schools in the U.S. produce about half the country’s black doctors, and none of them use affirmative action to admit students. Research shows that black students who attended medical schools where everyone was admitted under the same academic requirements performed better than blacks admitted to more-prestigious schools that used affirmative action."

"race-neutrality produces more diversity than racial favoritism. Black college graduation rates were growing faster before the 1970s, the first full decade of affirmative action. “But after 1970, the relative rate at which blacks were completing college dropped, then flatlined, and never recovered its previous upward trajectory,” according to “The Upswing,” a 2020 book by Robert Putnam and Shaylyn Romney Garrett. “In fact, today black Americans are completing college at a lower rate compared to whites than they were in 1970.”"

"large racial preferences that steer students into schools where they are more likely to struggle are simultaneously steering them away from schools where they are more likely to thrive."

"the vast majority of schools would be as racially integrated, or more racially integrated, under a system of no preferences than under a system of large preferences.”"