Overview
- The Justice Department announced on Monday that its Civil Rights Division concluded UC San Diego School of Medicine ran a covert “shadow” review that used applicants’ hardship essays and subgrouping as race‑correlated proxies to steer more Black and Hispanic applicants into interviews and offers.
- Federal investigators cited application data from 2019–2025 showing Black and Hispanic applicants were admitted at materially higher rates and that admitted students from those groups had lower median MCAT scores and GPAs than White and Asian admits.
- The DOJ said it is seeking a voluntary resolution with UC San Diego to bring admissions into compliance with Title VI and the Supreme Court’s 2023 Students for Fair Admissions decision and warned it will sue if settlement talks fail.
- UC San Diego said it is reviewing the DOJ letter, affirmed uniform academic thresholds for applicants, and pledged to work with the government while legal experts debate whether the DOJ’s statistical comparisons fully capture applicant‑pool context.
- The finding is part of a broader federal push that has opened probes at about 15 medical schools and prompted the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to open new investigations into five additional programs, raising possible legal exposure and risks to federal research funding.