Also seeing gains were those whose race was identified as “other” or “unknown.” The “other” category jumped 12.7 percent, to 1,006, and “unknown” increased by 9.3 percent, to 718.
- But the “other” and “unknown” groups are small. Even if every additional student in those categories was from an underrepresented racial group, it wouldn’t be enough to offset the drops reported above.
The context: Many in the medical profession argue patients have better outcomes when they can see practitioners who share their backgrounds. But the Supreme Court’s ban on race-conscious admissions eliminated a tool that medical schools could use to try to compensate for applicant pools that skew white and wealthy.
The new class’s socioeconomic diversity fell as well. First-generation first-year students slipped by 2.3 percent. The number of first-year students whose parents didn’t receive a bachelor’s degree, or whose parents held degrees in “service, clerical, skilled, and unskilled” occupations, declined by 2.1 percent.
The bigger picture: Medical-school enrollment remains more racially diverse than it was in 2017-18. If future classes look like this year’s, that won’t be the case for long.
The bigger question: Can medical education adopt any strategies to recruit more diverse classes? Ideas include lowering the cost of attendance, opening new medical schools, bolstering outreach to promising students, mentoring, and improving K-12 education.
