The Center for Equal Opportunity, a private non-profit making think-tank based in Washington, DC, has found that black and Hispanic students are being admitted to American medical schools with substantially lower college grades and test scores than white or Asian students.
The centre commissioned the independent consultants Drs Robert Lerner and Althea Nagai to conduct an analysis of six medical schools, representing every geographic region of the country. They found that a black, or to a lesser degree, Hispanic applicant, had a far greater chance of being admitted to medical school than white or Asian applicants with the same college grades and scores for the medical college admissions test (MCAT) (see table).
Many of the preferentially admitted students from the minority groups could not pass their licensing examinations, despite greater resources being directed towards helping them than helping other students.
At every medical school that the centre studied, substantially higher numbers of black students than white either did not take, or failed, their initial licensing examinations and, in most instances, failed their subsequent licensing tests as well.
The findings are described in two reports. In the first (a review of the University of Maryland School of Medicine—whose findings reflected those of the second, larger report on five other medical schools) the authors found that black applicants were given a massive degree of preference over their white, Hispanic, and Asian counterparts. In 1996 and 1999, 75% of black applicants were admitted with test scores lower than the scores achieved by about 75% of all the white and Hispanic students admitted.
The same report found that more than a quarter (7/27) of the black students enrolled failed “step 1” of the medical licensing examination on their first try. Two white students, one Hispanic, and no Asians failed. About a quarter (4/15) of the black students taking “step 2” of the examination failed it at first attempt. No student from other groups failed.
American medical schools generally deny any positive discrimination quota, respecting the US Supreme Court's ruling that quotas based on race or ethnicity are illegal.
Roger Clegg, general counsel of the centre, said that there was no reason to believe that other factors, such as success in interviews, accounted for the wide disparity in odds.
The complete studies may be accessed at www.ceousa.org
Table.
Likelihood of a black applicant being admitted over a white applicant with the same grades and scores for the medical college admission test
| Medical school | Year | Odds |
|---|---|---|
| University of Washington School of Medicine | 1997 | 30-1 |
| State University of New York at Brooklyn | 1996 | 23-1 |
| University of Maryland School of Medicine | 1999 | 21-1 |
| Michigan State University School of Medicine | 1999 | 14-1 |
Figure.
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Dr Peter Benton, hero of the television series ER