Late last year, Cornell made headlines by proclaiming that all qualifying students could now attend its medical school for free. The announcement, which follows in the footsteps of NYU, Washington University in St. Louis, and Columbia, aims to — among other things — address a long-standing and persistent challenge of diversity and access in the medical profession.
The numbers speak for themselves: While Hispanic and Latinx Americans account for 17% of the general U.S. population, they represent just 4% of practicing physicians. Disparities are similar for African Americans (14% of the general population vs. 4% of physicians) and Native Americans (2% of population vs. < 0.4% of physicians). As a recent New York Times article put it, “American medical schools are the training grounds for a white-collar, high-income industry, but they select their students from predominantly high-income, and typically white, households.”
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