WSJ: Boycotting Medical Schools, Diversity, And Merit

Wall Street Journal Op-Ed:  Medical Schools Are Wrong to Think Diversity and Merit Are in Conflict, by Fritz François (NYU Medical School) & Gbenga Ogedegbe (NYU Medical School):

A growing number of medical schools have announced that they will no longer share data with U.S. News & World Report. These schools claim that the magazine’s annual rankings hinder their ability to increase diversity.

Such claims aren’t supported by evidence. The ranking methodology, as currently constructed, includes consideration of students’ Medical College Admission Test scores and undergraduate grade-point averages, as well as other criteria. But medical schools have always been free to admit anyone they choose, regardless of their rankings. It’s true that diversity isn’t a criterion in the U.S. News methodology, but why should that stop schools from recruiting minority applicants or establishing a campus culture that encourages and values diversity? There is nothing in a thoughtful admissions process that explicitly prevents medical schools from assembling a student body based on anything other than academic performance, holistic reviews and interviews of candidates. ...

What these schools are really saying is that meritocracy can’t coexist with diversity. This is a presumptuous—and dangerous—perpetuation of the negative stereotype that students from backgrounds that are underrepresented in medicine are of lesser quality or unable to compete.

Ari Weitzner, M.D. (Brooklyn, NY), Missing the Point on Racial Preferences:

Drs. Fritz François and Gbenga Ogedegbe laud diversity in medical schools but insist that it reflects no compromise in merit and quality (“Med Schools Are Wrong on Rankings,” op-ed, Feb. 16). They therefore express dismay and confusion when some diverse medical schools drop out of the U.S. News & World Report rankings. ...

Even a casual reader of the news knows perfectly well that increasing diversity means exactly that—admitting students with lower scores. The authors are pretending not to understand the entire debate over affirmative action: Whether it’s permissible, morally or legally, to grant advantage to someone with less merit, so as to increase diversity. If all these students had equally high scores, and schools could promote racial diversity without lowering standards, we wouldn’t be having this debate, right?