(The Center Square) - The U.S. Department of Justice announced that the University of California San Diego Medical School has been denying admission to white and Asian applicants in favor of lower credential Black and Hispanic applicants.
“Rather than rely on MCAT scores or GPA, San Diego Med’s shadow application process unlawfully judged applicants for admission based on their race,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a press release on Monday. “San Diego Med’s blatant efforts to prioritize race are illegal, and we will end these practices.”
The DOJ began investigating UCSD on March 25.
The Department of Justice said it is engaging in settlement negotiations with UCSD to bring the school’s admission practices into compliance. If the practices are not changed, the DOJ said it will file a lawsuit.
The Center Square reached out to the U.S. Department of Justice requesting an interview, but did not hear back by the time of publication.
But The Center Square did get a comment from the California DOJ.
“The broader claim that the USDOJ is making here is not unfamiliar. They've made it in other places," California Attorney General Rob Bonta said, answering a question from The Center Square at a virtual press conference Tuesday. "It seems to be a weaponization. It seems to be political. It doesn't seem to be substantive based on law, based on the Constitution, or based on fact.”
The U.S. Department of Justice says that UCSD’s admission practices have acted in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College in 2023.
“Title VI prohibits recipients of federal funds from discriminating based on race, color, or national origin,” the DOJ said in a findings letter sent to Daniel W. Park, chief campus counsel at UCSD. “In SFFA, the Supreme Court held that racially discriminatory practices in higher education can rarely be squared with federal civil rights laws, no matter what a university's justification for the practices may be.”
In the admissions process, students were sorted into groups A, B and C based on their MCAT scores and cumulative GPAs. Applicants were then further sorted into subgroups, Group A with hardship, Group B with hardship and Group C with hardship. Although varying, a certain number of applicants from each of the six groups was granted an interview.
“Hardship categorization was used as a way to skirt SFFA by putting underrepresented minorities in medicine into their own subgroups and thus ensuring that more URMs received interviews,” the letter said.
The DOJ’s investigation found that between 2023 and 2025, despite having lower test scores and grades, the admission rate for Black applicants was more than double the admission rate of white applicants.
In 2023, the average GPA of Black applicants was 3.79, the average MCAT score was 514, and the acceptance rate was 6.18%. The average GPA of white applicants was 3.86, the average MCAT score was 518, and the acceptance rate was 2.45%.
In 2024, the average GPA of Black applicants was 3.84, the average MCAT score was 512, and the acceptance rate was 5.25%. The average GPA of white applicants was 3.94, the average MCAT score was 518, and the acceptance rate was 2.1%.
All of those numbers are from the U.S. Department of Justice, which noted the discrepancy between acceptance rates continued in 2025.
UCSD said, in a statement emailed to The Center Square, that it is reviewing the findings letter and is prepared to comply with federal law.
“UC San Diego received and is reviewing the finding letter released by the U.S. Department of Justice,” the university said, declining The Center Square's request to attribute its statement to an identified spokesperson. “UC San Diego remains committed to full compliance with federal law and welcomes the opportunity to work collaboratively and constructively with the federal government to affirm that commitment.”
“UC San Diego School of Medicine is proud to produce some of the highest-performing physicians and researchers in the nation, with residency placement rates that consistently meet or exceed national averages," the university added. "All applicants to the school’s Doctor of Medicine program must meet strict academic thresholds, a requirement that is and was applied uniformly to all applicants."
