Medical Schools Can’t Stop Racially Gerrymandering Their Student Bodies

by Jaryn Crouson

Some medical schools may still be using affirmative action policies to admit more black students over whites and Asians, a new report released Thursday found.

Some of these schools appeared much more likely to admit black students with lower Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) scores compared to those of white and Asian students, according to medical school admissions data acquired by Do No Harm. On average, black students admitted in 2024 had a mean MCAT score of 508.3, while Asian and white students had mean MCAT scores of 514.0 and 512.1, respectively.

While the average student scores around 506 on the MCAT, according to The Princeton Review, medical schools remain highly selective, often admitting less than 5% of applicants and requiring at least a 510 MCAT score to be considered competitive. 

Among the less competitive scores, black applicants scoring between 506 and 511 have an acceptance rate of 11.3%, Do No Harm found. Meanwhile, only 5.6% of white students who fell into that score range were accepted in 2024, along with 3.6% of Asians. In the 512-517 MCAT score range, 17% of black applicants were accepted, while only 7.9% of white applicants and 6.9% of Asian applicants were accepted in 2024.

Some schools showed an even more stark contrast. At the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, black applicants were nearly 10 times as likely to be admitted as white or Asian students with the same MCAT scores and GPAs, Do No Harm found. At Eastern Virginia Medical School, black students were 11 times more likely to be admitted than their white and Asian peers.

The University of Wisconsin’s medical school and the Eastern Virginia Medical School did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

Do No Harm’s report is based on information from 23 out of the 93 public allopathic medical schools in the United States. The rest of the schools did not respond to Do No Harm’s records requests, the organization stated.

With one exception, admitted white and Asian students had higher MCAT scores than admitted black applicants at all of the schools that responded to Do No Harm’s request. At 13 of the schools, the average MCAT score of accepted black students was lower than that of the white and Asian students the schools rejected.

Despite the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling that race-based admissions policies were illegal and discriminatory, several schools still attempt to sidestep the law and illegally racially gerrymander their student bodies. Those that complied often saw noticeable increases in their Asian student populations.

The Department of Education reminded schools in February that discrimination based on race is illegal and would not be tolerated and has since opened investigations into dozens of schools.

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Jaryn Crouson is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.

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