UCSD medical school used sneaky diversity tactic to favor black, Hispanic students: DOJ

A top California medical school violated federal law by using racial discrimination in admission decisions in a sneaky attempt to diversify the student body, federal officials said Monday.

The University of California San Diego School of Medicine used a “shadow application process” to favor black and Hispanic applicants, the Department of Justice charged in a scathing letter sent to the University.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, and the Supreme Court in 2023 outlawed discrimination in college admissions.

The elite medical school’s manipulation of applicants’ data was uncovered in a DOJ probe.

“San Diego Med’s blatant efforts to prioritize race are illegal, and we will end these practices,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon in a statement announcing the DOJ’s findings.

“Rather than rely on MCAT scores or GPA, San Diego Med’s shadow application process unlawfully judged applicants for admission based on their race,” she added.

According to the DOJ, San Diego Med’s admissions staff used answers to “hardship” application questions — which asked applicants to address how they “overcame” certain disadvantages — to help determine which students were black and Hispanic.

Then, those students were given a break on admissions. As a result, better-qualified white and Asian applicants were denied admission in favor of lower-credentialed black and Hispanic applicants, according to the DOJ.

The use of proxies to favor racial groups was outlawed by the U.S. Supreme Court in its 2023 decision against Harvard, which banned race discrimination in higher education.

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Dhillon outlined the DOJ’s findings in a letter sent to San Deigo Med School.

“San Diego Med has intentionally discriminated against applicants by granting and denying
admission based on their race,” she wrote in the letter. “It is likely this discrimination is ongoing.”

The DOJ’s findings were based on a probe begun in March as a matter of standard operating procedure that included a review of internal UC San Diego documents and the university’s admissions data from 2019 to last year.  

The investigation found admissions officers used a “shadow” admissions scheme to flag black and Hispanic students on the basis of “hardship” – so admissions officers would be more likely to go to those applicants.

“To racially diversify its classes, San Diego Med created an evaluation process that uses ‘hardship’ as a racial proxy, specifically to achieve its diversity agenda,” wrote Dhillon in his letter.

Black and Hispanic students needed to a 3.1 GPA and average test scores to gain acceptance to the school, while white and Asian applicants needed a 3 .50 GPA and exam scores in the 83^rd percentile or higher.

As a result, black and Hispanic students admitted to San Diego Med had lower grades and test scores than their white and Asian classmates, Dhillon wrote.

The scheme made it harder for white and Asian students to get into San Diego Med. Admission rates for black applicants were more than double the admission rates for white applicants, according to Dhillon.

The DOJ wants San Diego Med to achieve a settlement with the federal government by changing its admissions practices, or else face a federal lawsuit.

San Diego Med School officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the DOJ’s findings.