Black under-Representation in United States Medical Schools

Abstract

To understand why blacks are under-represented in medical schools and how this situation might be changed, we analyzed statistics on medical-school applicants, medical-school students and college undergraduates. The pool of qualified black applicants to medical schools has not been large enough to achieve appropriate black representation. If black under-representation is to be corrected, the pool of qualified black applicants must be increased. Affirmative-action programs for blacks who are already in college are unlikely to be sufficient by themselves to increase the pool of black applicants substantially. Such programs should therefore be developed for high-school students. (N Engl J Med 297:1146–1148, 1977) Blacks are under-represented in medical schools in the United States. In the late 1960's and early 1970's medical schools increased black representation substantially. The efforts made by medical schools were not sufficient, however, to correct black under-representation. The evidence presented below shows some of the reasons why blacks continue to be under-represented in medical schools; the evidence also suggests how affirmative-action programs might be developed that would be effective in correcting black under-representation. Many affirmative-action programs have been described in the literature. The literature does not, however, give evidence that allows the reader to evaluate directly the effectiveness of these. © 1977, Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.