Social post flags admissions disparities

A social post is recirculating a claim that race can sharply change a medical school applicant’s odds even when Medical College Admission Test scores are held constant, pushing an old admissions fight back into view. (aamc.org) The post points to Association of American Medical Colleges data and says Black applicants with the same Medical College Admission Test performance were accepted at rates about 600% higher than White applicants and about 830% higher than Asian applicants. The figure being cited does not appear in the Association of American Medical Colleges’ standard public grid, which reports acceptance rates by score-and-grade bands for all applicants combined, not by race within each band. (aamc.org) The public table most applicants use is a three-year grid covering the 2021-2022 through 2023-2024 cycles. In that table, acceptance rates range from 4.3% for applicants with grade point averages above 3.79 and Medical College Admission Test scores below 486 to 82.9% for applicants with grade point averages above 3.79 and scores above 517. (aamc.org) That distinction matters because the viral claim is about applicants with “equivalent” Medical College Admission Test results, while medical schools admit students with a broader review that also includes grades, coursework, essays, activities, recommendations, interviews, and life experience. The Association of American Medical Colleges says its admissions data and guidance are built around that broader review, not a score-only formula. (aamc.org) The timing also matters because medical schools have been rewriting admissions practices since the United States Supreme Court’s June 29, 2023 ruling against race-conscious admissions at Harvard and the University of North Carolina. The Association of American Medical Colleges’ March 27, 2025 guidance says an applicant’s race cannot be a factor in admissions decisions aimed at increasing class diversity. (aamc.org) The Association of American Medical Colleges’ newest national release, published January 9, 2025, showed a mixed picture after that ruling. Total applicants fell 1.2% to 51,946 in 2024-2025, Black applicants rose 2.8%, but Black matriculants fell 11.6% and Hispanic matriculants fell 10.8%. (aamc.org) The organization has argued for years that diversity in medical education affects patient care and workforce distribution, and it filed an amicus brief in the Harvard and North Carolina cases on that side of the debate. After the ruling, it shifted to compliance guidance that tells schools they cannot use race itself as an admissions factor. (supremecourt.gov) (aamc.org) Critics of affirmative action have used the post to argue that earlier admissions systems gave large racial preferences to some groups and penalized others, especially Asian applicants. Supporters of diversity-focused admissions have answered that score comparisons alone miss differences in opportunity, school quality, wealth, discrimination, and the nonacademic factors schools say they review. (supremecourt.gov) (aamc.org) What the public record shows clearly is narrower than what the post suggests: national medical school acceptance rates vary widely across score-and-grade bands, race-based admissions rules changed in 2023, and underrepresented-group matriculation fell in the 2024-2025 data. The precise “600%” and “830%” same-score comparisons circulating online rely on calculations not laid out in the Association of American Medical Colleges’ standard public admissions grid. (aamc.org 1) (aamc.org 2)