Medical School Program Abandons Admissions Standards for Black Applicants

Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada, has adopted a new approach to pursue its goal of racial diversity in medicine: abandoning academic standards for black applicants altogether.

The Black Learners Admissions Pathway, a program with the ostensible goal of helping “facilitate entrance into the undergraduate medical education program for Black students,” requires black applicants no objective measures of academic achievement.

The program requires applicants to identify as either “Black/African Nova Scotian”; “Black/African Canadian”; “or Black/African.”

“There is no minimum grade point average (GPA) required under the Black Learners Admissions Pathway, but the Black Learners Admissions Subcommittee may use general GPA requirements as a point of reference during the holistic review process,” the program description states.

The Dalhousie Medicine Admissions Committee requires applicants of other racial groups to have a GPA of 3.3.

Likewise, there is no minimum MCAT threshold for black applicants, though an MCAT score completed within the past 5 years is required. 

“No MCAT thresholds are required for eligibility under the Black Learners Admissions Pathway but the Black Learners Admissions Subcommittee may use general MCAT requirements as a point of reference during the holistic review process,” the program description states.

The minimum MCAT score for applicants who don’t enjoy this exemption is 492.

Dalhousie operates a similar program for indigenous students as well: the Indigenous Admissions Pathway, in which MCAT scores are optional.

Meanwhile, applicants in the Rural Applicant Pathway also do not need to meet a minimum MCAT threshold, but still must meet the GPA requirements.

As mentioned above, the Black Learners Admissions Pathway is intended to “diversify the healthcare workforce by applying equitable admissions processes for Black learners.”

Of course, imposing one standard on certain racial groups and another standard on other racial groups is the opposite of fair: it’s textbook discrimination.

In the zero-sum game of medical school admissions, one applicant’s benefit is another’s burden. But more than that, admitting applicants who are definitionally less qualified will almost certainly degrade patient care. 

Dalhousie cannot produce the best possible physicians when it explicitly seeks to recruit applicants who fail to meet minimum standards of academic performance.

Additionally, qualified black physicians may have to endure the perception that their admission to medical school was due to their race, and not their competence and merit.

Dalhousie should abandon its discriminatory practices and focus on providing the best possible medical education to all, no matter their race.