ku06 said:
I was reading a Forbes magazine article today. I don't know whether this was an old edition or not, but the general topic of the article was disabilities and professional school admission tests. The article was talking about how a group of lawyers was sueing AAMC and the AMA because if for example you have a mental disability and require unlimited time on the MCAT or a separate room, it is noted at the bottom of your score sheet. They say this is discrimination. The article went on to comment though, why would anyone who cannot finish a test in a certain amount of time with a lot of people surrounding them want to go into a school where the end product is to place you in a high stress situation with a lot of people and little time to think and read. In other words it presented the argument that why are you choosing to be a doctor if you can't handle being around people, quick action, etc.
What are your thoughts on this? Is it fair for someone to take all the time in the world on the MCAT, but not have it noted on their score sheet? Or is this practice discrimination?
Our society has certainly become hypersensitive to the possibility of discrimination. There is no question that this instance is discrimination. The only real question is whether that discrimination is appropriate. For instance, medical schools discriminate when they choose their applicants on the basis of, say, their MCAT scores.
I am inclined to make the judgement that this is acceptable. Just as it is acceptable to discriminate against an otherwise brilliant blind doctor (is such a thing possible?) when doing admissions for a surgery residency, it is acceptable to prevent a mentally handicapped individual from becoming a doctor at all, because this would potentially jeopardize the security and health of his patients.
But that isn't really the issue here. The issue is whether it's appropriate to note special testing conditions during the MCAT on the scoring record. I would say two things. First, I think this is totally legal since I don't really think this is technically discrimination. You're just noting information. To make an extreme example, if a student cheated on his MCAT, that might be noted on his record. Second, I think it's quite moral and appropriate. This simply provides more information to an admissions committee to make a judgement as to the applicant's fitness to enter medical school. The entire interview process is designed to make subjective judgements on the same fitness, and this is just another tool to make those decisions.
Finally, if an applicant is allowed unlimited time, for handicap or whatever reason, this is fundamentally unfair to those who do have a time limit. If the test-taker is, say, three times as slow as a normal applicant, but receives ten times the time, that is unfair.
Anyway, sorry for the long, rambling post. I am totally open to others' opinions on this, and what I just said is just that: opinion.
😀
EDIT: I assume a severe mental handicap, but the arguments RE: the notation appearing on the score sheet remain the same.
