Enrollment of Black and Hispanic students in medical schools dropped precipitously last year after the Supreme Court banned the consideration of race in admissions, according to data released Thursday by the Association of American Medical Colleges. 

The number of Black enrollees fell by 11.6% compared to last year, while the number of Hispanic enrollees decreased 10.8%. The numbers were even starker for Indigenous students; the number of American Indian or Alaska Natives dropped by 22.1%, while students who were Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islanders dropped by 4.3%. 

The new numbers reflect the first medical school class that was selected since the court’s decision and seem to validate the concerns of those who feared the June 2023 decision would lead to less diverse medical school classes and ultimately a less diverse medical workforce, harming efforts to end the country’s deeply rooted racial health disparities. 

Experts said the numbers were largely also impacted by a growing number of state-level initiatives to end or defund diversity efforts. Norma Poll-Hunter, senior director of equity, diversity, and inclusion for the AAMC, called those two factors a “double whammy,” and said she feared there was a deep misunderstanding about the importance of diversity within medicine.

“It’s critical for everyone to understand, this is not about racial preferences. This is about the nation’s health,” she said. Doctors from underrepresented groups and women, she said, were more likely to serve patients who rely on Medicare and Medicaid and communities with limited access to health care, including rural white communities. “That helps everyone’s health,” Poll-Hunter said.

The number of white students remained about the same. Increases were seen in the number of Asian students, which rose by 8.4%, and in the number of students reporting their race as “other” or unknown. 

The numbers erode steady gains made in recent years in enrollment of groups underrepresented in medicine and brings enrollment of Black and Hispanic students back to pre-pandemic levels, according to AAMC officials, who previously said they were “deeply disappointed” by the Supreme Court decision. In a statement Thursday, David Skorton, the organization’s president and CEO, said its member medical schools remain committed to diversifying the health care workforce. “Evidence shows that a more varied workforce can improve access to health care and the health of our communities,” he said.

“Some of you will not understand why this is a huge problem,” Roxana Daneshjou, an assistant professor of biomedical data science and dermatology at Stanford, posted Thursday on Bluesky. “As someone who works with students from underrepresented backgrounds, they often come in with fewer connections/resources but work incredibly hard and are dedicated to helping close health disparity gaps.”

“It’s unsurprising these numbers are starting to decrease,” said Utibe Essien, an assistant professor of medicine at UCLA whose research has shown that affirmative action bans have lowered the numbers of students from underrepresented groups who enroll in medical school.

Essien and others said it could prove difficult to boost numbers of underrepresented students with many universities and medical schools pulling back on diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts because of legal challenges and fears they will lose funding. “The efforts to increase these numbers are really starting to dwindle,” he said. “Things will get worse before they get better.”  

Essien said it was interesting that the AAMC reported an increase in applications coming from Black and Hispanic students, showing the Supreme Court ruling did not dampen the desire to attend medical school for these groups. He said he encourages hopeful applicants from underrepresented groups to work on getting the best MCAT scores they can, diversify their activities to stand out, and to continue to seek to enter the profession. “The actual health of our communities depends on it,” he said. 

Many were particularly concerned about the drop — in both enrollment and applications — from Native American and Alaska Native students because the numbers of physicians from that group is low and many tribal populations remain severely medically underserved. “Losing five to 10 people who identify as American Indian is significant,” Poll-Hunter said. “That is very concerning for us.”

In California, where affirmative action in admissions was banned by a ballot measure in 1996, enrollment of Black and Hispanic medical schools similarly dropped steeply at the time, but it has risen since then at one school, the University of California, Davis, after two decades of work by medical school leaders.

Providing a counterpoint, 2024-2025 admissions data from the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine showed an increase in enrollment this fall by students from underrepresented groups. The number of Black students increased from 3.9% to 4.7% while the number of Hispanic students increased from 7% to 9%. 

“Inclusion and empowerment are two of our core values and we rely upon them to help us create a highly qualified physician workforce that reflects the needs of our country,” the association’s president and CEO, Robert Cain, said in a statement. “These activities haven’t changed because of the SCOTUS decision, and many have been in place for years — a key ingredient to building trust and expanding the applicant pool.”

Poll-Hunter said she thought next year’s enrollment numbers would be especially informative as medical schools adjust to the new political and legal realities. She said many medical school leaders were still working on how to continue to diversify their enrollment while complying with new laws and mandates. “We’re not giving up at all,” she said. 

This story has been updated with additional comments on the AAMC data.

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