Medical Schools Have Been Trying to Use DEI to Solve a Much Bigger Problem

Medical Schools Have Been Trying to Use DEI to Solve a Much Bigger Problem

Medical schools are trying to ensure that the student body reflects society for the sake of equity, but the issues begin long before anyone applies.

From City Journal:

The “Pipeline” Problem That Medical Schools Don’t Want to Discuss

The U.S. Department of Justice’s recent finding that Yale School of Medicine discriminated on the basis of race in admissions has reignited one of the most contentious debates in higher education. According to the DOJ, black and Hispanic applicants admitted to Yale had substantially lower median MCAT scores and GPAs than white and Asian applicants across multiple admissions cycles, with the department concluding that equally qualified black applicants had dramatically higher odds of receiving interview invitations than comparable Asian applicants.

The finding comes on the heels of an earlier DOJ determination that David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA likewise engaged in racial discrimination in admissions, admitting black and Hispanic applicants with substantially lower academic credentials than their white and Asian peers.

For DEI critics, the Justice Department’s investigation provides confirmation that elite universities have continued racial preferences despite formal legal prohibitions. Admissions officers and other college officials argue that the Trump administration is leveraging civil rights law against diversity initiatives and misunderstanding the role of holistic admissions.

But beneath the legal and political fight lies a more fundamental question, one that receives surprisingly little attention: What is the proper way to evaluate disparities?

For decades, universities have treated demographic disparities in outcomes as self-explanatory. If black Americans make up roughly 14 percent of the total population but only about 6 percent of physicians, the observed difference is taken as evidence of wrongful underrepresentation—discrimination, in other words.

But medical schools don’t select students from the general population. They choose from a narrow, highly filtered pool of applicants who have demonstrated sustained excellence in challenging scientific coursework over many years. If the goal is to evaluate whether admissions reflect equal standards, the relevant comparison is not the population at large but the pool of students academically prepared to succeed in elite medical training.

Read the whole thing.

Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.