Med schools still accept black students with lower MCATs than rejected Asians, whites

Medical schools appear to continue race-based admissions policies that disadvantage white or Asian applicants, according to a new investigation by Ian Kingsbury, director of research at Do No Harm.

At nearly every med school reviewed, accepted black applicants had lower average MCAT scores than accepted white or Asian students, the research found.

More than a dozen med schools reviewed also accepted black students with average MCAT scores lower than the average MCAT scores of rejected Asian or white applicants.

The practice appears to run afoul of the 2023 Supreme Court decision Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which ruled colleges and universities must end affirmative action programs that racially discriminate against applicants. 

“Deprioritizing objective measures of merit in service of racial goals is extremely foolish,” Kingsbury told The College Fix in an interview.

To determine his findings, published Aug. 6 in City Journal, Kingsbury submitted Freedom of Information Act requests to all 93 U.S. public medical schools, seeking admissions data on race, undergraduate grades, Medical College Admission Test scores, and acceptance rates for students admitted in 2024. 

Once the responses came in from 23 of the institutions, the data revealed statistically improbable patterns. 

“Twenty-three medical schools have answered my request, including flagship institutions in states like Tennessee, Wisconsin, Missouri, New Mexico, and Colorado. The data they provided make it clear that schools are at least skirting the Supreme Court’s decision, if not violating it outright,” Kingsbury wrote.

“…It’s reasonable to ask whether the 23 medical schools that responded to my request are indicative of all 93 public medical schools in America. The answer is likely yes.” 

The disparities were especially stark at Eastern Virginia Medical School and the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, where black applicants were about 10 times more likely to be accepted than white or Asian applicants with similar grades and test scores.

Most revealing was the admitted class composition. Data from the schools show little to no change in the racial makeup of student bodies since the court’s ruling, with nine schools reporting increases in “under-represented” students, Kingsbury wrote.

Together, the findings show that medical schools are admitting black students with lower scores than their rejected white and Asian counterparts while increasing the representation of nonwhite students too.

Eastern Virginia Medical School, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, University of California Los Angeles, Penn State University College of Medicine, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Florida State College of Medicine, Texas Tech University, University of Tennessee School of Medicine and University of Missouri School of Medicine did not respond to requests from The College Fix seeking comment.

Monica Harris, a spokesperson for the civil rights group FAIR for All, told The Fix that the data “suggests that race may still be a significant factor in admissions decisions.”

“The disparities reported appear to meet the standard of discriminatory treatment that violates both the letter and spirit of civil rights law,” she said via email. 

In his article, Kingsbury called for the Trump administration to investigate medical schools for their apparent lawbreaking.

“This will make it much more difficult for colleges and universities to engage in racial discrimination,” he told The Fix. “Sunlight is truly the best disinfectant.”

According to Harris, her legal advocacy group stands with Kingsbury.

“FAIR supports immediate and comprehensive federal investigations into all medical schools,” she said. “[R]ace cannot be used as a factor in admissions decisions.”