California college ranks medical student applications based on 'adversity scores'

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A Northern California medical school that ranks applicants based on how disadvantaged they are could be a model for medical schools across the U.S. after the Supreme Court struck down race-based admissions last week, the New York Times reported.

The Univeresity of California, Davis Medical School's Associate Dean of Admissions Dr. Mark Henderson explained how the medical school evaluates applicants based on a "socioeconomic disadvantage scale" or "S.E.D." Every applicant is ranked from zero to 99 based on their background, such as family income and parental education. 

Applicants are given an adversity score based on eight categories which include "family income, whether applicants come from an underserved area, whether they help support their nuclear families and whether their parents went to college," the Times reported.

For example, children of doctors receive a score of zero on the SED scale, Henderson revealed.

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The UC Davis logo with a soccer game and bike riders in the background. University of California at Davis. Davis, California. Taken February 2, 2015. (Getty Images)

The university says their admissions decisions are based holistically, using the S.E.D. score "combined with the usual portfolio of grades, test scores, recommendations, essays and interviews." Henderson said there was "no set formula on how to balance the scale with the academic record," but touted how a simulation showed underrepresented students "grew to 15.3 percent from 10.7 percent" and economically disadvantaged students  "tripled to 14.5 percent of the class from 4.6 percent."

The U.C. Davis model, implemented in 2012, has gained national attention for bringing diversity to the once mostly-White student body, the Times reported.

In its most recent incoming class of 133 students, half belong to groups that are under-represented in medicine, the school revealed. 

36% of students were Asian, 30% are Hispanic, 14% are Black and 15% are White, UC Davis reported. 

"A vast majority of the U.C. Davis class — 84 percent — comes from disadvantaged backgrounds, and 42 percent are the first in their family to go to college," the Times said.

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  (iStock)

UC Davis did not respond to a request for comment by time of publication.

UC Davis was at the center of a landmark affirmative action case in 1978 where the Supreme Court struck down racial quotas in college admissions, but it allowed race to be considered as a factor in the admissions process. California banned affirmative action from public employment and education in 1996.

In another historic decision last week, the Supreme Court rejected using race as a factor in college admissions as a violation of the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.

President Biden announced his administration would push colleges to integrate measures of adversity in college admissions to increase diversity in response.

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Fox News Digital previously reported how medical schools have become more race-focused in recent years.

A recent analysis from the Association of American Medical Colleges found out of 101 medical schools in the United States, 43% of them "have promotion and tenure policies that specifically reward faculty scholarship and service on DEI topics." The report also found that 100% of the schools "have admissions policies and practices for encouraging a diverse class of students."

Fox News' Brian Flood and Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.