Affirmative action ruling affects medical schools, too

The U.S. Supreme Court gives universities the OK to use race in admissions but bars an automatic point system.

By Myrle Croasdale, AMNews staff. July 14, 2003.

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision on affirmative action has some medical schools rethinking their admissions policies.

Schools whose policies are now unconstitutional will be forced to make changes, while those in states where affirmative action had been banned now might find more freedom to consider an applicant's race.

The University of Illinois, for example, will need a different admissions strategy now that schools no longer may assign a specific numeric value to race to rank candidates, which is how the university handled its admissions process until now.

Mark Rosati, spokesman for the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago, said the school first selected applicants by factors such as grade point averages and Medical College Admissions Test scores. Applicants were given points for distinguishing characteristics such as race or a commitment to rural medicine.

"In light of the Supreme Court decision, we will review all our admissions policies and practices to ensure that we are in complete compliance with the court's rulings," Rosati said. "We do not believe the court's decisions will have a significant impact overall on the campus."

The University of Illinois, says the Assn. of American Medical Colleges, graduates the most minority doctors of all medical colleges, outside of those schools with historically black or Hispanic student populations.

It's unclear how many medical schools use a point system, since the AAMC does not track such data.