Racial Preferences at a Texas Medical School

TL;DR

This study analyzes racial preferences in admissions at a Texas medical school before the Supreme Court ruling, revealing significant race-based preferences favoring African American and Hispanic applicants over similar White and Asian applicants.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence of racial preferences in medical school admissions prior to legal restrictions, using detailed applicant data and statistical analysis.

Findings

African American and Hispanic applicants are preferred over similar White and Asian applicants.

Racial preferences are quantitatively significant and measurable.

The study establishes a baseline for assessing changes post-legal rulings.

Abstract

Whether and how race is used in selective admissions remains a central question in higher education and civil rights law. In Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (2023), the Supreme Court held that race-based affirmative action in college admissions violates the Equal Protection Clause, purportedly ending the practice. This report examines admissions at a public medical school in the pre-SFFA period. Using applicant-level data on over 11,000 applications to Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Medical School for the 2021 and 2022 cycles, I relate admission decisions to academic merit (MCAT, GPA, science GPA), race, gender, and situational judgment (Casper) scores. Summary statistics, academic-index decompositions, and logistic regression models provide strong evidence of racial preferences: African American and Hispanic applicants are preferred relative to academically similar White and Asian applicants. Counterfactual and preference-removal analyses quantify the magnitude of these disparities. The findings document the kind of race-based preferences that SFFA was meant to address and establish a baseline for assessing whether admissions practice changed after the decision.