The AAMC submitted Oct. 13 comments (PDF) in response to the Department of Education’s proposal for the Admissions and Consumer Transparency Supplement (ACTS) to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) for academics years 2024–25 through 2026–27. This proposal would add a new IPEDS component collecting detailed admissions and scholarship data from “all four-year institutions who utilize selective college admissions,” disaggregated by race-sex pair and additional factors such as test scores, GPA, family income, Pell eligibility, and parental education.
In the letter, the AAMC urged the department to reconsider the proposed ACTS data collection framework, arguing that it relies too heavily solely on academic metrics like test scores and GPAs, which on their own fail to capture the full range of qualities essential to medical education and practice. The letter also stated that the proposed data volume and timeline would create an undue administrative burden, diverting resources from the core mission of these schools. The letter outlined opportunities for collaboration with the academic medicine community to develop more accurate and appropriate data collection tools.