DOJ alleges UC San Diego med school used race admissions

The U.S. Department of Justice has alleged that the University of California San Diego School of Medicine illegally used race in its admissions process, favoring Black and Hispanic applicants over white and Asian ones. The findings, announced on Monday, July 20, 2026, stem from a federal investigation and mark the latest action in a broader Trump administration campaign against diversity policies in higher education.

Federal civil rights officials stated that the medical school violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars discrimination by institutions receiving federal funds, and contravened the U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 ruling that outlawed race-conscious college admissions. The Justice Department alleges the school employed a "shadow application process" that used subjective criteria, particularly applicants' responses to hardship questions, as a proxy for race to boost enrollment of underrepresented minorities.

According to the department's eight-page letter to the university, admissions staff first ranked applicants by Medical College Admission Test scores and grade-point averages but then created hardship subgroups that steered more Black and Latino...