Saturday, January 24, 2015

AEI - Mark J. Perry - Acceptance rates at US medical schools in 2014 reveal ongoing discrimination against Asian-Americans and whites


Acceptance rates at US medical schools in 2014 reveal ongoing discrimination against Asian-Americans and whites


medschool

The table above (click to enlarge) of US medical school acceptance rates is a revised and updated version of one I’ve posted several times before, here’s a link to the most recent CD post on this topic from July 2014. The series of posts on medical school acceptance rates by race/ethnic groups for various MCAT scores and GPAs has generated a lot of interest and comments in the past, so I’m posting on the topic again with new data for the 2014-2015 academic year that just recently became available from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).  Specifically, the table above displays: a) acceptance rates to US medical schools for Asians, whites, Hispanics and blacks with various combinations of MCAT scores and GPAs for the academic years 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 (aggregated for the two years), and b) average MCAT scores and average GPAs by race/ethnic group for matriculants to US medical schools in the fall of 2014.

 For 2014, the average GPA of all students applying to medical schools was 3.55 and the average MCAT score was 28.6 (see AAMC data, Table 19). The highlighted dark blue column in the middle of the table above displays the acceptance rates to US medical schools for applicants from four racial/ethnic groups for applicants with: a) GPAs that fall in the 3.40 to 3.59 range that includes the average GPA of 3.55 and b) MCAT scores in the range between 27 to 29 that includes the average score of 28.6. Acceptance rates for students with slightly higher and slightly lower than average GPAs and test scores are displayed in the other columns. In other words, the table above displays acceptance rates by race/ethnicity for students applying to US medical schools with average academic credentials, and just slightly above and slightly below average academic credentials.

 Here are some observations based on the new AAMC data:
  1. For those applicants to US medical schools last year with average GPAs (3.40 to 3.59) and average MCAT scores (27 to 29), black applicants were 4 times more likely to be admitted to medical school than Asians in that applicant pool (81.0% vs. 20.4%), and 2.7 times more likely than white applicants (81.1% vs. 30.6%). Likewise, Hispanic applicants to medical school with average GPAs and MCAT scores were twice as likely as whites in that applicant pool to be admitted to medical school (61.7% vs. 30.6%), and three times more likely than Asians (61.7% vs. 20.4%). Overall, black (81%) and Hispanic (64.1%) applicants with average GPAs and average MCAT scores were accepted to US medical schools in 2014 at rates (81.1% and 64.1% respectively) much higher than the 32.3% average acceptance rate for all students in that applicant pool.
  2. For students applying to medical school with slightly below average GPAs of 3.20 to 3.39 and slightly below average MCAT scores of 24 to 26 (first data column in the table, shaded light blue), black applicants were 9 times more likely to be admitted to medical school than Asians (58.7% vs. 6.5%), and 7.2 times more likely than whites (58.7% vs. 8.2%). Compared to the average acceptance rate of 18.1% for all applicants with that combination of GPA and MCAT score, black and Hispanic applicants were much more likely to be accepted at rates of 58.7% and 30.9%, and white and Asian applicants were much less likely to be accepted to US medical schools at rates of only 8.2% and 6.5%.
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