DOJ says UC San Diego med school used race against Asian, white applicants
The University of California San Diego School of Medicine unlawfully weighed race in admissions to favor Black and Hispanic applicants over better-credentialed Asian and white applicants, the Justice Department has alleged.
What the DOJ is saying
In a July 20 news release, the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division said San Diego Med factored race into its admissions in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 2023 Supreme Court ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which ended race-conscious admissions. The finding followed an investigation opened in March which concluded that the school had manipulated applicant data to build a more racially diverse class.
“Rather than rely on MCAT scores or GPA, San Diego Med’s shadow application process unlawfully judged applicants for admission based on their race,” Asst. Atty. Gen. Harmeet K. Dhillon said in the release. Now, the department is pursuing a voluntary settlement that would put the school’s admissions on legal footing, with nearly $1 billion in federal funding on the line. It also seeks to sue if negotiations fail.
In response, UC San Diego said it is studying the DOJ’s letter and intends to comply with federal law, adding that all applicants “must meet strict academic thresholds, a requirement that is and was applied uniformly to all applicants.”
The “hardship” question
After the 2023 ruling, the school added a “hardship” question, yielding answers that staff then used to identify applicants from underrepresented groups for advancement. In a June 2023 email, admissions director Brian Zeglen wrote that the school should “purposely select some students from Group C,” its lowest-scoring tier. This would lift as many as 62 applicants into the interview round, where reviewers could see each applicant’s race.
The admission rate for Black applicants was more than double that for white applicants from 2019 to 2025, though white applicants averaged higher MCAT scores and GPAs. Among those admitted for 2023, the median MCAT was in the 88th percentile for Black students, against the 94th for Asian students and the 95th for white students, Fox News noted.
Why this matters
The allegation against UC San Diego recalls the central claim of the Harvard case, which is that Asian American applicants outperformed their peers academically yet won admission less often. It also follows the UCLA and Yale findings, which we both covered, and is the department’s third against a medical school in under three months.
The ruling’s effects on Asian Americans remain unsettled. As we previously reported, Asian American enrollment at Johns Hopkins climbed from 25.6% to 45.1% between 2023 and 2025 while declining at Duke, Princeton and Yale. Some experts have faulted the DOJ’s earlier findings, arguing the administration reads the 2023 decision’s bar on race far more broadly than warranted.
At least 15 medical schools face Justice Department investigation, while the Education Department has opened inquiries into five more.
This story is part of The Rebel Yellow Newsletter — a bold newsletter from the creators of NextShark, reclaiming our stories and celebrating Asian American voices.
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