Harmeet Dhillon Says There Is Racial Discrimination At UCSF

India-West News Desk

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – The U.S. Justice Department has said that it has found that the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine discriminated based on race in admissions to its 2023-2025 incoming classes, saying the practices violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision.

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division announced the finding September 22. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said aspiring doctors should be admitted based on their qualifications and that federally funded medical schools may not admit students based on race.

The department said UCSF’s admissions practices also violated the Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which banned race discrimination in higher education.

UCSF’s admissions process has three stages: the primary application, secondary application and interview. Race is identified and discussed in both the primary and secondary applications, and the Justice Department claims it was used in deciding which applicants advanced through the process and who was ultimately admitted.

Fewer than 10% of secondary applicants advance to interviews. Black and Hispanic applicants were invited to interview at higher rates than white and Asian applicants despite having lower MCAT scores and undergraduate GPAs, according to the department.

From 2023 through 2025, UCSF also admitted Black and Hispanic applicants who academically underperformed the average rejected white and Asian applicant, the DoJ alleged.

Medical schools receive substantial federal financial assistance and are subject to federal nondiscrimination laws. It is this lever that has the Trump administration targeting academic institutions.

The Justice Department said it is negotiating with UCSF to bring its admissions practices into compliance and if those efforts fail, the department said it will file a lawsuit.