Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday accused the University of California, San Francisco’s medical school of discriminating against White and Asian applicants.
- Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s civil rights division, alleged in a letter detailing the agency’s findings that the UCSF School of Medicine unlawfully advantaged Black and Hispanic applicants seeking acceptance to its incoming classes from 2023 to 2025
- The DOJ said it will now enter into settlement negotiations with UCSF. If the agency determines the university doesn't adequately return to compliance, it said it will sue the institution.
Dive Insight:
The DOJ's findings allege admissions at UCSF's medical school violated Title VI, which bars discrimination based on race, color or national origin.
According to the agency’s analysis, the school used race to determine which applicants would advance to the interview stage of the admissions process and, ultimately, be accepted.
Black applicants were 12.6 times as likely to be admitted than White applicants with the same MCAT scores, GPA and socioeconomic traits, the DOJ said. Hispanic applicants were 4.6 times more likely to be admitted under the same circumstances.
In a statement, Dhillon alleged that "MCAT scores and undergraduate GPAs have taken a backseat to race" in the school's admissions. She argued that the medical school's admissions process violated the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision outlawing race-conscious admissions.
Race-conscious admissions practices have been illegal under California law since 1996.
UCSF on Wednesday said it disagrees with the DOJ's findings. Its medical school's admissions process takes into account applicants' grades, prior coursework, MCAT scores, clinical experience, research, service, leadership "and other experiences to identify future physicians who will excel in patient care, biomedical discovery, and service to communities across the country."
"Academic excellence has always been central to our admissions process," the university said in a statement. "We will continue to engage constructively with the Department and look forward to resolving this matter."
Its medical school is highly selective and one of the top-ranked programs in the U.S.
UCSF accepts 2.5% of its medical school applicants, according to U.S. News and World Report. Institutional data shows that of the over 10,000 applicants for fall 2025 admissions, the school interviewed 584 of them, and 161 matriculated.
In recent months, the Trump administration has increased allegations of admissions discrimination against medical and law schools as part of its crackdown on higher education
UCSF's medical school is the fifth graduate school in the University of California system to face such accusations from the Trump administration.
