UCLA med school puts 'diversity' first, sees failure rates soar

UCLA has become a"failed medical school" because it "cut corners" to achieve racial diversity, a former admissions staffer says. Failure rates have soared on "standardized tests on emergency medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, and pediatrics," reports Aaron Sibarium in the Washington Free Beacon.  

Since Jennifer Lucero took over medical school admissions in June 2020, "faculty members with firsthand knowledge of the admissions process say it has prioritized diversity over merit, resulting in progressively less qualified classes that are now struggling to succeed," he writes.

In some cohorts admitted by Lucero, more than 50 percent of students failed "shelf exams" taken at the end of each clinical rotation. The national average is 5 percent. Twenty-five percent of students failed three or more shelf exams.

"UCLA still produces some very good graduates," one professor said. "But a third to a half of the medical school is incredibly unqualified."

One professor said that a student in the operating room could not identify a major artery when asked, then berated the professor for putting her on the spot. Another said that students at the end of their clinical rotations don't know basic lab tests and, in some cases, are unable to present patients. "I don't know how some of these students are going to be junior doctors," the professor said. "Faculty are seeing a shocking decline in knowledge of medical students."

The number of Asians admitted is way down; whites are down slightly. Four people who served on the admissions committee said black and Hispanic applicants are accepted with below-average grades and scores, while "white and Asians need near perfect scores to even be considered," writes Sibarium.

Those who question the qualifications of minority candidates are accused of "privilege" and subjected to diversity training sessions, multiple sources said. "After a Native American applicant was rejected in 2021, for example, Lucero chewed out the committee and made members sit through a two-hour lecture on Native history delivered by her own sister, according to three people familiar with the incident," he writes.

California forbids racial discrimination in college admissions, but UCLA's Discrimination Prevention Office has declined to act on complaints about Lucero's conduct.

UCLA made another change in 2020 that's contributing to the students' struggles in their clinical rotations, writes Sibarium. The preclinical curriculum was condensed from two years to one year. The new curriculum "has been a colossal failure," one professor posted on a forum for medical school applicants. "Students are grossly unprepared for clinical rotations."

Among the mandatory first-year courses is "Structural Racism and Health Equity," which covers topics such as"fatphobia," decolonization, climate activism and the evils of "ableist heteropatriarchal capitalism." That leaves less time for anatomy, physiology, biochemistry and other science courses.

Recently, writes Sibarium, guest lecturer Lisa Gray-Garcia, led students in chants of "Free, Free Palestine" after instructing them to kneel on the floor and pray to "Mama Earth."

UCLA is conducting a review of the class.

Students who fail shelf exams are repeating classes or postponing licensing exams, reports Sibarium. Some will need an extra year of medical school to pass exams and qualify for a residency.