A white male student has sued six Texas medical schools that rejected him for admissions but admitted minority and female students who had lower MCAT scores. He did so in a class-action lawsuit filed January 10 by America First Legal Foundation.
The medical schools being sued are: Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin, McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, the John Sealy School of Medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, and the Long School of Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
The white male student is George Stewart, who is suing on behalf of the class of “white and Asian men” who are applying to these six schools.
“AFL’s client, a white male, applied unsuccessfully for admission to six medical schools in Texas in the 2021-2022 cycle,” says America First Legal Foundation.
Reportedly, “Stewart graduated from UT-Austin with a 3.96 grade point average and a biology degree. He scored a 511 out of a possible 528 on the exam required for admission, known as the MCAT, and spent two years applying to medical schools.”
After being rejected, he filed an open records request and “obtained the race, sex, grade-point average, and MCAT score data for every applicant,” according to the complaint filed in the lawsuit.
He learned that the “median and mean grade-point averages and MCAT scores of admitted black and Hispanic students are significantly lower than the grade-point averages and MCAT scores of admitted white and Asian students; admitted female students have lower MCAT scores than admitted male students.”
The complaint filed in the lawsuit notes that at UT-Austin Dell, for example, the 75 percentile MCAT score for an admitted black student was well below the 25 percentile MCAT score for an admitted white or Asian student, and similar disparities exist at all five other med schools being sued. Disparities also existed between male and female scores.
“The data demonstrate that each of the defendant medical schools is providing admissions preferences to female, black, and Hispanic applicants while unlawfully discriminating against whites, Asians, and men in admissions decisions,” the complaint says. “The race and sex preferences that the defendants have established and enforce prevent Mr. Stewart from competing on equal terms with other applicants for admission to these medical schools because Mr. Stewart is a white male.”
The racial disparities violate the law against racial discrimination in contracts (42 U.S.C. § 1981), as well as the Constitution; Title VI of the Civil Rights Act; and Title IX of federal education law, it states.
UT Southwestern Medical, in a statement to Campus Reform, said it “uses a wide variety of other criteria as part of its holistic admissions process to identify applicants who best align with the school’s mission. Numerous variables are utilized to make that evaluation, including characteristics related to leadership, prior life experience, innovation and creativity, teamwork, and community engagement.”
“Test scores, in conjunction with the rigor of pre-med coursework taken, are also utilized to determine competency in the foundational knowledge necessary to begin as a first-year medical school student and are only one aspect of the school’s consideration of applicants.”
But the complaint says Stewart was discriminated against by those “holistic” admissions practices. He grew up in Texas “with the desire to study science, become a physician and serve others …. He made the sacrifices necessary to excel as a student from an early age and thereafter, graduating from high school with a 4.39/4.0 GPA and from college at the University of Texas at Austin with a 3.96/4.0 unaudited GPA in Biology while also volunteering with various relief and ministry organizations. He worked, interned and volunteered in medical facilities at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Neofluidics Laboratory in San Diego, and Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. He also scored a 511 on his MCAT. He believed he would be a good candidate for the Texas medical schools and for two years applied to medical schools hoping to fulfill his dream and calling to become a physician. Unfortunately, he was denied this opportunity while over 450 lesser qualified minority students, ranging as low as a GPA of 2.82 or an MCAT of 495, were offered admission.”
