Racially Driven School Admissions
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Topic: Racially Driven School Admissions
Posted By: ArthurBignose
Subject: Racially Driven School Admissions
Date Posted: 31 August 2011 at 5:11pm
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So, I'm a senior now (engineering) and I've applied to med school(s). While looking around, I found a breakdown on percentage acceptance based on MCAT score and GPA. This was further broken down into ethnicity. It shows what I think is a somewhat ridiculous trend. The vertical axis is %chance, the x axis is MCAT score from 25-40 and the lines represent cGPA. Overall: http://i55.tinypic.com/v4o2om.jpg - http://i55.tinypic.com/v4o2om.jpg  Hispanic or Latino: http://i53.tinypic.com/2w2lgdi.jpg - http://i53.tinypic.com/2w2lgdi.jpg  Black: http://i52.tinypic.com/35bw9jc.jpg - http://i52.tinypic.com/35bw9jc.jpg  Asian: http://i53.tinypic.com/ra9mp4.jpg - http://i53.tinypic.com/ra9mp4.jpg  White: http://i52.tinypic.com/2efkcaf.jpg - http://i52.tinypic.com/2efkcaf.jpg  I understand the desire to have a diverse population in a profession, and that test scores are only one part of what makes a person appealing to an admissions committee. However, these graphs seem to show a clear difference in the likelihood of acceptance based on race with whites being about average, hispanics and black above average acceptance, and asians below average acceptance. For some numbers, take a 3.5 GPA and 30 MCAT which is about average. Chances of being accepted based on race: overall 50% hispanic 78% black 88% asian 45% white 52% I could understand a 5 percent difference...but accepting on average 32% more black people than asians with the same test scores? Come on... ------------- |
Replies:
Posted By: oldpbnoob
Date Posted: 31 August 2011 at 5:23pm
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Out of curiosity, do these figures include all applicants whether foreign or U.S. citizens? This could cause part of the swings considering white Europeans and Chinese may be more apt to apply for schooling in the U.S. than say Nigerians or Chileans. Just a thought. ------------- "When I grow up I want to marry a rich man and live in a condor next to the beach" -- My 7yr old daughter. |
Posted By: stratoaxe
Date Posted: 31 August 2011 at 5:28pm
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I think that college admission is tricky business. The education game is changing, and setting the bar isn't as easy as it used to be.
I know that there are alot of factors that contribute to admissions that may not be represented here. Like with law school, it's perfectly within reason to get in with a 3.5 or even lower if you have the right writing skills and community service experience. I don't really know what motivations that colleges have for keeping a diverse population, but I'd imagine it's important. All of that said, it is disheartening to know that you can work your butt off and still be at a disadvantage. I expect this is a trend that's only going to get worse as the percentages of higher level degrees goes up. ------------- 
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Posted By: ArthurBignose
Date Posted: 31 August 2011 at 5:33pm
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The overall includes all applicants regardless of residency status. The graphs based on ethnicity only include US citizens or permanent residents (not international applicants). The sources for the numbers come from the Association of American Medical Colleges: https://www.aamc.org/download/157450/data/table24-mcatgpagridall2008-10.pdf.pdf - https://www.aamc.org/download/157450/data/table24-mcatgpagridall2008-10.pdf.pdf http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/157998/mcat-gpa-grid-by-selected-race-ethnicity.html - http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/157998/mcat-gpa-grid-by-selected-race-ethnicity.html - |
Posted By: oldpbnoob
Date Posted: 31 August 2011 at 5:41pm
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Your second link doesnt seem to work for me, but not a big deal. If true, seems pretty odd. I wonder if anything has to do with sheer numbers? Do the graphs include applicants that may have been accepted to multiple programs and declined to go? Are Asians more apt to send out more applications? I'm not Asian, but I sent out multiple applications to colleges when I was looking around and got accepted to all of the ones I sent in. I obviously only went to one of them. ------------- "When I grow up I want to marry a rich man and live in a condor next to the beach" -- My 7yr old daughter. |
Posted By: ArthurBignose
Date Posted: 31 August 2011 at 5:57pm
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I fixed the links. The data shows applicants who applied to at least one school and acceptees who were accepted to at least one school. Obviously the acceptance rate is lower if for someone who applies to less schools than for someone who applies to more, so that will skew the plots. However, it should skew them all similarly. You could make socioeconomic conjectures into how ethnicity could play into the ability to apply to schools, but there are fee waiver programs so that shouldn't be an issue. It is super expensive though, I applied to 11 schools and have paid about $1500 so far and am expecting to have shelled out over $2k before it's all said and done. ------------- |
Posted By: agentwhale007
Date Posted: 31 August 2011 at 6:15pm
| Are the sample sizes for each ethnicity of similar range? |
Posted By: ArthurBignose
Date Posted: 31 August 2011 at 6:27pm
And Whale brings the reality check... Good point, I didn't even think about it. Sample sizes: Overall: 124503 Hispanic: 9287 Black: 10123 Asian: 27187 White: 78024 ------------- |
agentwhale007 wrote:Posted By: agentwhale007
Date Posted: 31 August 2011 at 6:37pm
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I'd imagine that, to some extent, the fact that the sample size for black applications/acceptances is a considerable amount lower than that for white, and Hispanic is remarkably lower, is causing some of the discrepancy in the statistics. Even the Asian sample size is more than double that of the black sample size. Granted, the statistics are still rather interesting, I just think that might be causing some skewing of results. Then again, I'm not the best at judging this kind of stuff by eye. You can use some test to determine the fit of compatibility of sample size variations. Or a few tests. I know that the output of a Tukey's HSD in an ANOVA can tell you, but I don't think that would work here. Also, so I have this straight, those sample sizes represent those accepted to medical colleges within the polling/sampling data as a whole, yeah? So, 124,503 would be 100% of the acceptances within the period? |
Posted By: ArthurBignose
Date Posted: 31 August 2011 at 6:53pm
Very good points. It could make an interesting study for someone so motivated that is good at statistics. The numbers given were the number of applicants. Here is a break down of applicants, acceptees, and % acceptance.  Also a note on the validity of the numbers, this is just for MD, not DO. The first application is sent to AMCAS, a part of the AAMC, and only 8 schools (out of 133) do not use this service. The numbers are reported to the AAMC by all of the participating schools. ------------- |
Posted By: agentwhale007
Date Posted: 31 August 2011 at 7:06pm
That it would. I'd be interested in seeing how these ethnicity pieces of data break down when looking at first round acceptance, second round, late acceptance, etc.
Well, I'm out.
You know, I worked for a osteopathic medical school for almost a year and I still don't really know the difference between an MD and a DO. I know that when drafting releases I used the phrase "a more hands-on approach," quite often, but I have no idea what that actually means.
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