Today, @AAMC_MCAT held a webinar that was unannounced on social media. The slides from this webinar, as well as additional files, were sent to us (unprompted) by several attendees so that we could see the data the AAMC presented.
(This is the 🧵we mentioned earlier)
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(This is the 🧵we mentioned earlier)
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As far as we can tell, it was billed as an update from AAMC to med schools on how the 2020-2021 AMCAS cycle is progressing. In the words of one attendee, however, “It was mostly AAMC attempting to get ahead of you all with messaging.” 2/
It is important to note that we’ve made extensive efforts at transparency. It is disappointing to learn that AAMC has not. We appreciate the allies who have reached out to share this and other information. We hope that someday applicants can be included in the conversation. 3/
We also received a few documents/figures that show that the AAMC is well aware of the issues applicants are facing this application cycle. 4/
So, we begin this thread with the understanding that AAMC has been listening to applicant concerns but still failing to respond appropriately. Here are some data that they used in their webinar: 5/
. @AAMC_MCAT presents scheduled tests to show that they have appropriately handled rescheduling. This fails to account for unforeseen cancellations that are already occurring in states like FL, CA, and NC as COVID-19 cases spike.
This data also shows that there are 65k students whose lives could be put at risk for the MCAT. This does not account for families of examinees that could also be exposed to the virus once their MCAT examinee comes home.
The AAMC then continues to use projections that do not account for the unpredictability of the pandemic to show that applicants will have scores by mid-August. Again, data shown is just a prediction. Many exams are still being canceled.
. @AAMC_MCAT then breaks down the racial/ethnic makeup of scheduled examinees in order to counter our concerns about COVID-19’s impact on applicant diversity. This graph again assumes that everyone with a scheduled exam…
...will not face cancellations. One major problem here is that BIPOC communities are much harder hit by the pandemic. As COVID-19 rages on, we can expect cancellations that will disproportionately harm low-SES and BIPOC applicants.
These communities may also have lesser ability to travel to test centers located away from COVID-19 hotspots, which is what many white high-SES students have been doing. As such, we can expect to see this graph shift as time goes on.
We must also consider otherwise excellent applicants who can’t take the exam this summer due to health and safety concerns. SEA collectively grieved while reading this. Wonderful physicians WILL be wiped out of the pipeline this year.
Notably absent from this presentation is a graph on the impact on low-SES students. In the past, the AAMC has released data like this that breaks down medical students by household income, so we know they do research on the subject.
So why didn’t @AAMC_MCAT show data from their federal assistance program (FAP) numbers to compare 2019 applicants to 2020 projected applicants in this webinar? (We’ll save our problems with FAP for another thread.)
Low-SES students, BIPOC students, are already harder hit by the pandemic than white high-SES students. The complications with this cycle have already forced many low-SES applicants to call it quits for this cycle or forever.
This adds to the decrease in applicant diversity that can be expected for this cycle, and even @AAMC_MCAT can’t seem to dispute that. To top it all off, the AAMC did not report how many students who have been affected by cancellations.
Many students have already gone through 3+ cancellations as the pandemic evolves. We can only expect more to come as states reenter lockdown. (Though AAMC doesn’t seem to care about CA applicants, whose exams are still on this weekend.)
t bears repeating: this exam probably could have been delivered online. However, AAMC says it can’t be (due to cheating and fancy computer graphics). They presumably explained this in their webinar today (see “Q&A”) but slides weren’t included.
Another major flaw with AAMC’s reasoning is that this cycle has seen an early spike in the # of apps both initiated and submitted. Based on the same date in June 1yr ago, submitted apps are up 11.2%. Initiated apps are up even more.
Precise comparison is difficult as we don’t know how app submissions have changed over the past month and we can’t predict the future, but this appears to be a significant uptick from the total 1.1% increase in submissions from 2018-2019.
Let's pause. This is significant news! The cause for this increase remains to be known (maybe that will be a future SEA thread), but it has certainly cause some SEA members to wonder if they should continue applying this year without an MCAT score.
This makes it appear as if this cycle is on track with previous cycles despite the challenges presented by the pandemic. But... we cannot assume that all scheduled exams and initiated apps will go through.
While AAMC makes this assumption in the data provided, it is a fact that many disadvantaged students who started their applications have already decided to give up for safety and economic reasons.
There is no way to know how many students will be able to have complete files until the cycle ends, especially given the ongoing COVID-19 spikes across the U.S. Projections like this completely ignore the obstacles applicants are facing.
That doesn't mean they aren't aware, though. They have offered guidance to medical schools on these obstacles, it seems. But, theory is sometimes different than practice, and relatively few med schools have adopted these recommendations.
The AAMC goes on to discuss how holistic admissions (including MCAT scores) can address the impact COVID-19 has on disabled applicants, but fails to address the myriad issues disabled individuals have getting accommodations for the MCAT.
It also fails to address the scheduling concerns this examinees faced (and continue to face). Of note: the AAMC did indicate today that they will give a 50% exam cost refund to examinees w/ disabilities as consolation for their stress and obstacles.
The stigma around disability within the medical community is also not discussed. If applicants disclose disability status as suggested, they may be subject to additional discrimination and bias during the application process.
Finally, we found no suggestion that this webinar, which was supposed to be about @AMCASinfo, ever addressed the ongoing transcript and application verification delays. This feels relevant, given the distress and delay it has caused premedical students (and their registrars)!
The faulty logic used in this webinar is clearly an attempt to discount the concerns applicants have raised and to assure medical schools that there is no reason to #WaiveTheMCAT. The reality is that data can be presented in many ways…
...in order to support whatever point is desired. As future physicians, it is our duty to examine data with skepticism and to do our own research. SEA respectfully asks @AAMC_MCAT to follow up on this webinar by giving the public access to a recording or transcript.
We want to work with the AAMC to address our concerns, but we cannot do that if we are barred from the conversation. Some AAMC administrators, such as @AtulGroverMD, have said it would be unfair to include some students but not others.
So is excluding all students from major decisions the solution? As fundamental units of this system, we deserve to have our voices heard. As the ones risking our lives to take the MCAT, we should have more say in the solution.
SEA makes sure to gather info and concerns from as many students as we can so that we can accurately represent the greater applicant population. By failing to address us, @AAMC_MCAT is also failing to address the rest of its constituents.
All of this leads to the essential question: Why? What does the AAMC get out of stubbornly refusing to adapt to the pandemic? As the primary gatekeeper to medical professions, one would expect them to prioritize student health and safety.
As premeds, med students, residents, and physicians, we must continue to ask our institutions to do better and to be better. We hope that we will be able to get some answers and begin working with the AAMC to make change.
We have written several documents that were sent to the AAMC/AACOM/TMDSAS and medical schools. These links can be seen below. But, we should note that we have our new website domain up! Find us at ethicalstudents.com
Thanks for reading and thanks to everyone who has shown us so much trust and respect over the past few months. We value the relationships we are building here on #MedTwitter and beyond, and, of course, have to suggest that we #WaiveTheMCAT, #DelayTheApp, and #CommitToChange!
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