Mar 9, 2023 07:00 PM
(This post was last modified: Mar 9, 2023 08:52 PM by C C.)
Contrast to the mainstream approaches that are often just a virtue-signaling sham to begin with, including recruiting non-whites not even born in the U.S. or not from disadvantaged backgrounds. The essence of do-gooder ideology is throwing money at _X_ strategy without concern for whether it works or not, since the superfluous "we care" marketing public image is the actual achievement sought.
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https://www.statnews.com/2023/03/07/how-...ring-race/
EXCERPTS: The demographics of the 133 members of the class of 2026 at UC-Davis’ medical school are exceptional: 14% Black, 30% Hispanic, and 3% American Indian/Alaska Native, numbers that match or exceed the U.S. population. Perhaps even more surprising, 42% were the first in their families to attend college and 84% come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
These are numbers most medical schools never see....
[...] Most medical school admissions committees set up barriers for more economically disadvantaged students, he argues, by chasing after students with Ivy League pedigrees and U.S. News and World Report rankings that favor high MCAT scores.
It’s no accident, then, that top-ranked medical schools are among the least diverse. One analysis found medical schools with the highest U.S. News rankings have the lowest “social mission metric” —they graduate far fewer students from groups underrepresented in medicine or who go on to work in underserved areas. (Many top-ranked medical schools, including Harvard, which is ranked first as a medical school but 65th in diversity by U.S. News, declined to be interviewed for this article.)
[...] Because Davis had to use a race-neutral approach to admissions, Henderson focused on economics. “I’d call it class-based affirmative action,” he said. “Class struggles have a huge overlap with race — that’s how we skirted the issue.” Applicants were given high marks if they had a “socioeconomic disadvantage score,” shifting admissions criteria away, he said, from MCAT scores and GPAs to characteristics like grit, resilience, and perseverance.
Related: Why doesn’t the U.S. have more Black doctors?
The school provides $12 million in scholarships each year to students who are economically disadvantaged. One statistic Henderson is proudest of: More than 40% of Davis medical students in this year’s class demonstrated enough financial need that their application fees were waived. Nationally, that number is 13%, he said.
The school places an emphasis on cultivating “hometown” physicians who come from medically underserved areas where they hope to return to practice. It started an accelerated three-year pathway for those interested in primary care — the only one in the state of California — and developed curricular options for students interested in tribal medicine, rural medicine, or working in California’s agriculturally focused Central Valley. It turns out admitting students interested in working with the underserved serves to increase diversity, Henderson said. Meanwhile, Fancher is working with community colleges to create a pathway to admit more of their students.
The school also focuses on making all students feel welcome. Nationally, students from groups underrepresented in medicine report more experiences of discrimination, unfair grading, and less access to professional opportunities and mentoring. At Davis, incoming students are paired with like-minded peers — and faculty who look like them. “They’re seeing role models doing the work they want to do, right away,” said Fancher, who is mixed race and was a first-generation college student herself.
She remains humble about the achievements at the school. “I think we still have a ways to go,” she said. “I do worry there’s still a lot of antiracism work that still needs to happen across many of our institutions — and in all phases of physician education. We need to examine our embedded systems that allow inequity, and harm, to persist.” (MORE - missing details)
- - - - - - - -
https://www.statnews.com/2023/03/07/how-...ring-race/
EXCERPTS: The demographics of the 133 members of the class of 2026 at UC-Davis’ medical school are exceptional: 14% Black, 30% Hispanic, and 3% American Indian/Alaska Native, numbers that match or exceed the U.S. population. Perhaps even more surprising, 42% were the first in their families to attend college and 84% come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
These are numbers most medical schools never see....
[...] Most medical school admissions committees set up barriers for more economically disadvantaged students, he argues, by chasing after students with Ivy League pedigrees and U.S. News and World Report rankings that favor high MCAT scores.
It’s no accident, then, that top-ranked medical schools are among the least diverse. One analysis found medical schools with the highest U.S. News rankings have the lowest “social mission metric” —they graduate far fewer students from groups underrepresented in medicine or who go on to work in underserved areas. (Many top-ranked medical schools, including Harvard, which is ranked first as a medical school but 65th in diversity by U.S. News, declined to be interviewed for this article.)
[...] Because Davis had to use a race-neutral approach to admissions, Henderson focused on economics. “I’d call it class-based affirmative action,” he said. “Class struggles have a huge overlap with race — that’s how we skirted the issue.” Applicants were given high marks if they had a “socioeconomic disadvantage score,” shifting admissions criteria away, he said, from MCAT scores and GPAs to characteristics like grit, resilience, and perseverance.
Related: Why doesn’t the U.S. have more Black doctors?
The school provides $12 million in scholarships each year to students who are economically disadvantaged. One statistic Henderson is proudest of: More than 40% of Davis medical students in this year’s class demonstrated enough financial need that their application fees were waived. Nationally, that number is 13%, he said.
The school places an emphasis on cultivating “hometown” physicians who come from medically underserved areas where they hope to return to practice. It started an accelerated three-year pathway for those interested in primary care — the only one in the state of California — and developed curricular options for students interested in tribal medicine, rural medicine, or working in California’s agriculturally focused Central Valley. It turns out admitting students interested in working with the underserved serves to increase diversity, Henderson said. Meanwhile, Fancher is working with community colleges to create a pathway to admit more of their students.
The school also focuses on making all students feel welcome. Nationally, students from groups underrepresented in medicine report more experiences of discrimination, unfair grading, and less access to professional opportunities and mentoring. At Davis, incoming students are paired with like-minded peers — and faculty who look like them. “They’re seeing role models doing the work they want to do, right away,” said Fancher, who is mixed race and was a first-generation college student herself.
She remains humble about the achievements at the school. “I think we still have a ways to go,” she said. “I do worry there’s still a lot of antiracism work that still needs to happen across many of our institutions — and in all phases of physician education. We need to examine our embedded systems that allow inequity, and harm, to persist.” (MORE - missing details)