Fewer med school-bound minorities nationwide

The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) announced last week that, in states with affirmative action rollbacks, there has been a 17 percent drop in the number of minority students applying to medical school. While officials claim that minority application percentages among Yalies are stable, this national trend has concerned educators and students.

Although exact figures for each state and ethnicity have not yet been compiled, Rochelle Rothstein, Kaplan Educational Centers' vice-president of health sciences, said that California and Texas suffered the greatest drops in minority applications, especially among underrepresented groups such as African-Americans and Latinos. Louisiana and Mississippi also had large drops in minority applicants. "The decline suggests that students in these states are interpreting rollbacks as a sign that they are not welcome," Rothstein said.

The AAMC also discovered a seven percent decrease in minority medical school applications in states that did not change their affirmative action policies, which may indicate that minorities across the country are less confident in general about their chances of being accepted to medical school. "Minority students are worried about the climate that currently exists," said AAMC spokesman John Parker.

The AAMC's most troubling finding was that many minority students from states with affirmative action rollbacks have simply decided not to apply to medical colleges in other states, even though these other states still have affirmative action policies. "The data suggest that minority students are not applying to medical school at all," Rothstein said.

Although the reasons for the dropoff are not entirely clear, economics may have a strong influence. According to Susan Hauser, Yale Undergraduate Career Services director, "Most people go to medical school in their home state." Although these students may have better chances of being accepted to schools in states other than their own, it is usually more expensive. "Students in states without affirmative action may not be applying out of state because of financial considerations," Rothstein said.

In addition to a decline in minority applicants, acceptence and matriculation rates have also fallen. The AAMC found that the number of minorities accepted to state medical schools in states with affirmative action rollbacks dropped by 27 percent, and that matriculation rates in these states declined by 26 percent, compared to a four percent decline in states without the rollbacks.

Despite these national concerns, the number of Yale's underrepresented minority students applying to medical school has not been significantly affected by changes in affirmative action policies. "The number of [underrep-resented] minority students from Yale applying to medical school has been stable for several years," Hauser stated.

Yale Medical School officials said they have not experienced a decline in minority applications. "Our numbers of minority applications have stayed steady, but our overall numbers are going down slightly," M. Lynne Wootton, director of admissions at the Yale School of Medicine, said. She added that medical school officials are concerned because the minority acceptance rate has also remained relatively low. "The most important thing is that there is no increase whatsoever," Wootton said. Last year's applicant pool contained approximately 16 percent underrepresented minorities, and each class of 100 usually includes 14 to 20 underrepresented minorities.

While the statistics for minority applications are part of a general decline in medical school applications--the AAMC reported an 8.4 percent overall decrease--Yale students still worry about the future of minorities across the country. "It's kind of sad," Terri-Anne Davis, SM '99, co-moderator of the Black Student Alliance at Yale, said. "This is definitely a national trend. A lot of states look to California and Texas for examples of what national trends are."

Some students worry that affirmative action rollbacks will negatively affect the medical profession in general. According to Carlos Paz, ES '98, a medical school applicant and former chairman of the Professional Society of Latinos, "Medical school is not only about learning the material; you have to learn to be a good doctor. Given the current demographic trends, medical schools will be at a loss because they won't be producing doctors who reflect the character of the people they serve."

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