Opportunities for Minorities

The number of applicants from underrepresented minorities has decreased since 1996. Between 1992 and 1998 minority applicants had a statistically better chance of being accepted to medical school than others. Since then, however, the trend has been reversed for black applicants (but not for other minority group members). In recent years, minority students have made up less than 11% of first-year classes.

The reason for the decline in minority enrollment may be due to the elimination or modification of affirmative action policies. The conflict over medical school admissions policies and minority representation stems from a 1978 case of a student, Alan Bakke, who sued a medical school because he was rejected when his credentials were superior to those of several African-American students who were accepted. He argued that the medical school turned him down on the basis of race in order to achieve a minimum racial quota of minority students. The Supreme Court supported Mr. Bakke's contention and disallowed reverse discrimination but permitted race to be considered one of the factors in the admissions decision. The second part of this decision was reversed in 1996 and in subsequent rulings by the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Civil rights groups are seeking to overturn the appeal court's action.

Attempts to overturn affirmative action at the ballot box are also being opposed by a variety of professional health care organizations. The educational and legal systems have yet to find a balanced formula that takes into account the needs of white students with good grades and high MCAT scores who may not be admitted to medical school in favor of minority students who are competing to fill the same openings.

On the positive side, the minority applicant pool has remained significant, and the chances of admission are 50%, as compared with 40% a decade ago. The mean MCAT scores for minority applicants have also improved. There remains, though, a discrepancy when compared with the acceptance rate for majority applicants, which currently stands at 55%. Also, the attrition rate among minority medical students has doubled over the past decade to 12%.

The cutback in educational funding has made acceptance into medical school a formidable challenge for underprivileged students; the dropout rate along the way is high from completion of elementary school through college. In addition, these students are being discouraged by the same factors that have generated a negative climate relative to choosing medicine as a career. These include talk of an oversupply of physicians, malpractice litigation publicity, rising tuition costs, and (for some) the need to treat AIDS patients.