Kerby Anderson
The acronym DEI is found in business and the academy. It is now also being used in medical schools. DEI stands for diversity, equity, and inclusion. A new report of the top medical schools’ documents that DEI is being used to weed out applicants who aren’t firmly within the latest woke metric.
The nonprofit, Do No Harm, conducted an analysis of medical school application processes and concluded that these schools were raising an additional entry barrier on top of the grade requirements and testing. The report argues that these medical schools are asking these questions to “turn ideological support for health equity and social justice initiatives into a credential that increases an applicant’s chance of acceptance.”
As you might expect, the questions on the applications ranged widely. One application asked prospective students “how you have committed yourself to understanding and aiding in the pursuit of equity and inclusion in your academic, professional or personal life.” Another was more direct. The school asks applicants to share their “thoughts on opposing systemic racism, anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination, and misogyny.” The application then asks: “How will you contribute?”
This latest medical school trend parallels what has been happening on university campuses for years. Heather MacDonald documents how these woke ideas have spread from the university to the workplace in her book, The Diversity Delusion.
Medical schools certainly have a right to ask questions of prospective students that help faculty determine whether they will make good doctors. You can simply ask an open-ended question like “Why do you want to become a physician?” But these applications are using DEI to weed out certain applicants.