Data released by the Association of American Medical Colleges suggests black and Hispanic students were more likely to be accepted to medical school between the 2013 and 2016 academic schools years, according a blog post by the American Enterprise Institute, a right-wing think tank.
Mark Perry, PhD, a professor of economics and finance at the University of Michigan-Flint School of Management, analyzed statistics released by the AAMC regarding the average MCAT and GPA scores for Asian, Caucasian, Hispanic and black applicants accepted to U.S. medical school between 2013 and 2016. Dr. Perry notes data reflecting the recent rescaling of MCAT scores to a 525 point scale, as well as admissions information from the 2016-2017 academic year, has not yet been released and may alter the findings.
Here are four things to know about Dr. Perry's analysis.
1. For applicants with an average GPA of 3.4 to 3.59 and average MCAT scores of 27 to 29, 81.2 percent of black applicants were accepted to U.S. medical schools, compared with 59.5 percent of Hispanics, 20.6 percent of Asians and 29 percent of white applicants.
2. For students with slightly lower than average GPAs (3.2 to 3.39) and MCAT scores (24 to 26), black applicants were more than nine times likely to be admitted to medical school than Asian applicants (56.4 percent versus 5.9 percent).
3. Of the applicants with slightly above average academic credentials, including a GPA of 3.4 to 3.59 and MCAT scores of 30 to 32, roughly 86.9 percent of blacks and 75.9 percent of Hispanics were accepted, compared with the 48 percent of white applicants and 40.3 percent of Asian applicants with the same credentials.
4. "Medical school acceptance rates in recent years suggest that medical schools must have 'affirmative discrimination' and 'racial profiling' admission policies that favor black and hispanic applicants over equally qualified Asian and white students," Dr. Perry wrote.
To view Dr. Perry's full analysis, click here.