Affirmative Action in Medical Schools

Nobody wants a DEI doctor, yet medical schools have used demographic variables, such as race, as factors in their admissions processes for a long time.

To illustrate the effect of Affirmative Action on medical school admissions, we will be working with the following data:

The table breaks down admissions into American medical schools by:

• Race/Ethnicity

• MCAT Scores

• GPA

We can start by visualizing the entire dataset:

From the visualization, we can observe within each grouping by academic qualifications (MCAT Scores & GPA) that Blacks and Hispanics generally have higher chances of admission than similarly qualified peers who are Asian or White.

If we take a closer look at the most qualified applicants:

We can see very clearly that individuals in different groups have different chances of admission despite being similarly qualified:

• Asians: 57.5%

• Whites: 63.0%

• Hispanics: 83.4%

• Blacks: 93.7%

Relative to All Applicants in the “MCAT 30-32, GPA 3.60-3.79” grouping:

• Blacks have a 32.8% advantage

• Hispanics have a 22.5% advantage

• Whites have a 2.1% advantage

• Asians have a 3.4% disadvantage

The trend persists similarly for other MCAT & GPA groupings:

Where relative to “All Applicants” the general trend for MCAT & GPA groupings is:

• Blacks & Hispanics have an advantage

• Asians and Whites have a disadvantage

The advantage makes it so that the most qualified Whites (in the “MCAT 30-32, GPA 3.60-3.79” grouping) have a worse chance of admission than:

• Blacks in the MCAT 24-26, GPA 3.40-3.59 grouping

• Hispanics in the MCAT 27-29, GPA 3.60-3.79 grouping

When looking at Asians, the advantage is large enough that the most qualified Asians (in the “MCAT 30-32, GPA 3.60-3.79” grouping) have a worse chance of admission than:

• Blacks in the MCAT 24-26, GPA 3.40-3.59 grouping

• Hispanics in the MCAT 27-29, GPA 3.40-3.59 grouping

Race preferences in medical school admissions matter not only because of the moral issues that come with discriminating against individuals based on race, but also because there is reason to suspect these practices are impacting real-world outcomes:

Although the terminology used by Charles Murray to describe each group was slightly different, I think it is still reasonable to look at the issues observed with California physicians and compare them to race preferences in medical school admissions by mapping:

• African to Black

• Latin to Hispanic

• European to White

• Asian is already used in both contexts.

We can observe that groups that benefit from race preferences in medical school admissions tend to face issues at higher rates once they begin practicing professionally.

Race should not be used to arbitrarily punish or reward individuals, especially when it comes to the selection processes of high-stakes professions. This type of demographic engineering is virtually absent in sports, where the best athletes are elevated regardless of skin color.

Comic by WokelyCorrect

If we value the best and most talented in the context of sports, then why not also value the best and most talented in the context of healthcare? Character and Merit should matter more than skin color, especially when the stakes are higher.

When people step into a hospital, they want the peace of mind that the staff are well-trained and have been chosen based on merit. Nobody wants a DEI doctor; medical schools should change their admissions practices accordingly.

Appendix

Adding additional visuals of the Medical School Affirmative Action Data in this section, in case they are of interest to anyone. I may periodically update this section with more charts.