[Serious] How different could the 2026 cycle be?

[catalyst1000]

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The national political landscape is currently in a "shock and awe" phase that has numerous implications in the medical field.

Some examples:

1. DEI / AA went from having the full support of, to being entirely in the the crosshairs of the federal government.

2. OBGYN / Endocrinology being nuked from orbit.

3. Possible RFK Jr. confirmation, MAHA, medicaid / medicare reform, ACA repeal?

4. Federal funding for universities put into question. Likely will be the carrot and the stick used to get universities to conform with gov's social reform.

With all this in mind, it still seems entirely possible that the 2026 cycle isn't much different. However, it might also not be, and I'm sure many schools are scrambling to figure out what they need to / don't need to change.

I'm surprised to not have seen much discussion about this so far. What do you guys think.

 

[medDawgbruh]

Purely speculation, but I’ve seen a few articles about how most medical schools are proud to have DEI measures, especially as the new anti-DEI “policies” are being released. I would be surprised to see the anti-DEI promoters successfully prevent medical schools from continuing DEI.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Too early to say. Let various lawsuits and injunctions take their course. But med schools are on notice among themselves how they have slid back from their intended goals for diversity (at least on race/ethnicity).

You should watch for clearer policies for genAI usage and if the move for adopting SJTs in the admissions process gains more steam.

We don't know how this affects financial aid for this incoming class, much less the future classes. Evidence is piling up for tuition-free programs not attracting or benefitting low-SES-origin applicants as hoped.

How this affects summer programs that have a diversity mission, especially for research... that will be interesting to watch for me.

 

[Goro]

Exercise in futility.

 

[narrator]

imo very different.

we already saw that black/hispanic/other urm numbers dropped a ton this cycle because of the SC ban thing

but what's happened thus far isn't everything. my personal theory based on nothing except listening to the current gov talk a little here and there and hanging around twitter is that they'll hold the endowments etc hostage. and w elon there, it's no longer a situation like the supreme court one where people in the gov are fooled/tricked into thinking AA was dumped. clarence thomas is like 80 whatever and can be fooled unless something makes it all the way the chain to SC by another group of people.

elon knows stats. and if not him, he's connected to so many on twitter/etc that know the stats very well (like eyeslasho and others) for undergrad/med admissions etc of test score variations. they can smell if it's happening. they regularly post that it's still happening even, and elon comments or goes "concerning". and elon is pulling a lot of weight it seems.

idk if any of what I wrote makes sense since it's 2 am, that's kinda my take. not that I side with it or anything. thank god I applied this cycle though

 

[narrator]

Too early to say. Let various lawsuits and injunctions take their course. But med schools are on notice among themselves how they have slid back from their intended goals for diversity (at least on race/ethnicity).

You should watch for clearer policies for genAI usage and if the move for adopting SJTs in the admissions process gains more steam.

We don't know how this affects financial aid for this incoming class, much less the future classes. Evidence is piling up for tuition-free programs not attracting or benefitting low-SES-origin applicants as hoped.

How this affects summer programs that have a diversity mission, especially for research... that will be interesting to watch for me.

good point since those NSF programs and others are, whether private or public, directly funded by the gov.

we already saw what they did to NASA just a couple days ago (and whatever internships they'd have). same with NIH

 

[eigen]

Given that even private biomedical funders like HHMI are pulling grants related to anything to do with inclusivity in education (and have scrubbed their websites of the fact that such programs ever even existed), I'm thinking the scenario's are going to play out more on the pessimistic side of what people are predicting than the optimistic side.

That said, I also agree that trying to read the tea leaves is an exercise in futility. I'm still submitting grants / papers / etc. where I can, and I would suggest that applicants keep doing what they had originally planned on until more detail is known.