U. Wisconsin med school admits black students at 6 times rate of Asians

The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health accepts black applicants at a rate six times higher than it does Asian applicants, despite lower average Medical College Admissions Test scores, a medical advocacy group recently reported.

However, the public university denied that it accepts applicants based on their race when contacted by The College Fix.

The report “Skirting SCOTUS Part III: How Medical Schools Continue to Practice Racially Conscious Admissions” by Do No Harm analyzed 2024 admissions data from 23 medical schools, including the University of Wisconsin’s.

At the Wisconsin medical school, it found that “a black applicant has nearly 10 times the odds of admission compared to an Asian or white applicant with the same MCAT score and GPA.”

Admitted black applicants averaged MCAT scores in the 62nd percentile, while white and Asian admits averaged scores in the 86th percentile, according to the report.

A page on the medical school’s website states that “diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are top priorities,” and that it aims to build programs that “reflect” the communities it serves. Its admissions page also highlights that 28 percent of the students who are admitted are “underrepresented in medicine.”

However, UW spokesperson John Lucas told The Fix that the medical school does not discriminate on the basis of an applicant’s race.

“The admission process reviews every aspect of an application with the strength of academic preparation key to determining an applicant’s likelihood of success. No student is admitted on the basis of their race/ethnicity/identity,” Lucas said in a recent email.

“Students are admitted on the basis of their likelihood to succeed throughout the rigorous course of study” in the medical school’s programs, Lucas said.

He also told The Fix that the medical school “educates and trains competent and skilled physicians who are well-equipped to practice medicine and care for their patients.”

Meanwhile, Ian Kingsbury, director of research and co-author of the report, told The College Fix that the admissions analysis was based on data from public records requests to allopathic medical schools in the U.S. Do No Harm works to keep identity politics out of medical education and practice.

The group requested data on student acceptance rates, race, MCAT scores, and GPAs to “observe whether candidates receive preferential treatment based on their race,” Kingsbury said.

“Students with stronger academic credentials (i.e. GPA and MCAT scores) tend to perform better through the medical school pathway (i.e. medical school and residency). Deprioritizing objective measures of merit in service of racial goals is extremely foolish,” he told The Fix in a recent statement via email.

Do No Harm’s report, published in July, is the third part in a series of investigations into racial discrimination at U.S. medical schools.

Its latest findings revealed that 22 out of 23 public medical schools exhibit a trend of admitting underrepresented minority students with lower test scores over more academically accomplished white and Asian candidates.

The report also found “evidence that a number of medical schools continue to pursue identity politics and employ discriminatory, racially conscious admissions policies,” Chairman Dr. Stanley Goldfarb stated in a news release.

“These policies were deemed unlawful by the Supreme Court, and these schools are shirking their duty to train the most qualified group of future healthcare professionals,” he stated.

The 2023 Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard ruling prohibits the use of race-based affirmative action in admissions.

This comes as part of a larger initiative from the U.S. Department of Justice “demanding compliance.”

In March, for example, the department launched an investigation into several California universities for alleged racial discrimination in their admissions practices.

“President Trump and I are dedicated to ending illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunity across the country,” Attorney General Pam Bondi stated in a news release at the time. “Every student in America deserves to be judged solely based on their hard work, intellect, and character, not the color of their skin.”

Additionally, a federal bill called the Embracing Anti-Discrimination, Unbiased Curricula, and Advancing Truth in Education Act would block federal funding for medical schools that prioritize discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion practices, The College Fix previously reported.

In a report earlier this year, Do No Harm found that over 70 medical schools maintain offices dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion, despite federal orders to end these programs, The Fix reported.