Medical School Acceptance Rates, 2008-2010

The chart above is an update of this CD post from last summer, showing medical school acceptance rates for Asians, whites, Hispanics and blacks based on data from the Association of American Medical Colleges for the years 2008-2010 (aggregated). For 2010, the average GPA of students applying to medical schools was 3.53 and the average total MCAT score was 28.3, and those averages are highlighted above. Therefore, the chart above shows the acceptance rates for students applying to medical schools with average GPAs and MCAT scores, and those students with slightly higher and slightly lower than average GPAs and test scores. In other words, this selected sample displayed above would represent students in the middle range of the distribution of those applying to medical school. Here are some observations:

1. For those students applying to medical school with average GPAs and MCAT scores, black applicants are almost three times more likely to being admitted than their Asian counterparts, and more than twice as likely than their white counterparts.
2. For students applying to medical school with slightly below average GPAs of 3.20-3.40 and slightly below average MCAT scores of 24-26, black applicants are more than 8 times as likely to be admitted as Asians, and more than 5 times as likely as whites.

Bottom Line: Because of apparent affirmative action policies for admission to medical schools in the U.S. that especially favor blacks and Hispanics, Asian and white students are discriminated against. For example, a black applicant with average grades and a below average MCAT score is slightly more likely to be admitted to medical school (78.1%) than an Asian student with both higher than average grades and higher than average MCAT score (73.7%). Further, an Hispanic student with a below average GPA and a below average MCAT score is only slightly less likely to be admitted to medical school (38.3%) than a white student with both above average GPA and MCAT score (40.3%).