The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) revealed in its investigation released on Monday (July 20) that the UC San Diego School of Medicine had been using race as a significant factor in its admissions decisions since as early as 2022.
According to the DOJ, in the school’s admissions process, white and Asian applicants were more likely to be denied admission compared to African American and Hispanic applicants. This violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin. Additionally, the medical school’s admissions process was found to be in violation of the principle of equal protection in higher education as confirmed by the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard case.
The DOJ also stated that data from the school’s applications showed significant disparities in MCAT scores and GPAs between admitted students of different ethnicities. Over the past three years, the admission rate for African American applicants was more than double that of white applicants.
For the freshmen class of 2023, the admission rate was 2.45% for white applicants and 6.18% for African American applicants; for the class of 2024, the rates were 2.1% for white applicants and 5.25% for African American applicants; and for the class of 2025, the rates were 1.96% for white applicants and as high as 5.14% for African American applicants.
“In these three academic years, the average GPAs and MCAT scores of admitted African American applicants were consistently lower than those of white and Asian applicants competing for admission slots,” the DOJ stated in a letter of inquiry to the medical school, urging the institution to enter into an agreement to ensure its admissions practices comply with federal laws.
UC San Diego School of Medicine responded to the Epoch Times via email, stating that they are reviewing the findings from the DOJ’s investigation.
The statement read: “All students applying to our Doctor of Medicine program must meet rigorous academic standards, a requirement that has consistently applied to all applicants.”
The institution also highlighted that some of the most excellent medical talents in the U.S. have come from their school, with their graduates achieving or surpassing the national average in obtaining residencies.
However, the DOJ pointed out that UC San Diego School of Medicine manipulated applicant data to increase the racial diversity of admitted students, favoring applicants with lower ethnic qualifications over others with better credentials.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon stated, “UC San Diego School of Medicine did not consider MCAT and GPA but instead unlawfully used a hidden admissions process to determine admissions based on applicants’ race. Prioritizing race openly is illegal, and we will put an end to such practices.”
According to the DOJ investigation, internal documents from the medical school revealed that admissions staff used subjective standards of “race neutrality” to intentionally increase the admission rates of “underrepresented minorities in medicine,” including African American and Hispanic students.
The admissions process required applicants to answer a question about “hardship,” explaining how they overcame adversity to assist admissions staff in determining who belongs to the “underrepresented minorities in medicine” category.
The DOJ noted that UC San Diego School of Medicine effectively used the “hardship” question from the application as a proxy for race, consistently favoring the admission of students of specific ethnicities over others with better qualifications.
Applicants were divided into three score groups: A, B, and C based on exam scores and GPAs (high to low), with each group further categorized into corresponding “hardship groups” based on the application’s “hardship” question, forming six categories. Subsequently, each score group combined with its corresponding hardship group (e.g., A group with A hardship group) to create batches of 30 people each for evaluation to determine which applicants could advance to the admissions interview stage.
In each batch, only a fixed number of applicants were guaranteed an interview.
The DOJ stated that admissions staff used the “hardship groups” to afford more interview opportunities to applicants with lower scores, aiming to improve the admission rates of “underrepresented minorities in medicine.”
The DOJ investigation report also pointed out that the addition of “hardship groups” categories by the institution was a deliberate effort to diminish the importance of MCAT scores and GPAs, instead relying on subjective criteria to increase the admission rates of “hardship group” applicants.