Trends in Medical School Applications and Acceptances From Historically Black Colleges and Universities, 1980-2022

What are the trends in medical school application and acceptance rates for Black undergraduate students who graduated from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)?This cross-sectional study of 1 666 145 medical school applicants found that the number of Black medical school applicants increased longitudinally from 1980 to 2022. Black HBCU graduates represented a higher proportion of Black applicants from 1990 to 2017 compared with 2018 to 2020 but consistently had lower medical school acceptance rates than non-HBCU Black graduates.Black HBCU students contribute substantially to the physician training pathway, and further investigation is needed to explore why Black HBCU students apply at a higher rate but are accepted to medical school less often.

Corresponding Author: Jasmine Weiss, MD, MHS, Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, 231 MacNider Hall, Campus Box #7225, Chapel Hill, NC 27599 (jasmine_weiss@med.unc.edu).

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