DOJ Finds UC Davis Medical School Discriminated By Race In Admissions

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division determined on June 10 that the University of California, Davis School of Medicine illegally considers race in admissions, violating the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (SFFA) and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

The finding caps a six-month investigation and marks the third medical school the DOJ has flagged in recent weeks.

SFFA banned race-conscious admissions in 2023, but the DOJ says some schools are using socioeconomic proxies to reach the same result. UC Davis’ case is notable because, according to the Department, administrators openly described their approach as a workaround and pitched it to other schools.

Medical schools receive substantial federal funding, which Title VI ties to non-discrimination compliance. UC Davis currently holds about $3.47 million in active federal grants, per the DOJ’s findings letter.

The Details

At the center is the “Davis Scale,” a model that scores applicants on eight socioeconomic factors (including parental income, parental education, and whether an applicant grew up in a medically underserved area) and weighs that score alongside GPA and MCAT results.

The DOJ argues the scale functions as a stand-in for race. The Department points to documents in which Davis Med’s Associate Dean of Admissions, Dr. Mark Henderson, described the method as “class-based affirmative action” and said “that’s how we skirted the issue,” citing the overlap between class and race.

By the school’s own tracking, the share of “underrepresented in medicine” students rose from 24% in 2011 to 58% in 2023. In 2024, UC Davis described itself as the third most diverse medical school in the country, behind only historically Black institutions.

By The Numbers

The DOJ’s review of 2023–2025 admissions data found that 93% of white and certain Asian admittees had MCAT scores at or above the average Black admittee’s. It also found Black and Hispanic applicants were admitted at rates up to six times higher than white and Asian applicants who, on average, had stronger academic metrics.

How This Connects

Admissions standards carry real financial weight for the students who get in. Doctors already graduate with some of the heaviest amounts of student loan debt in the country and The College Investor has reported an average medical school debt around $202,000, with roughly 71% of doctors leaving school with loans. Debates over who gets a seat play out against the backdrop of a credential that routinely costs new physicians six figures before residency pay even begins.

The DOJ says it will pursue settlement negotiations to bring UC Davis Medical School into compliance. If those talks fail, the Department says it will sue. It also signaled continued monitoring of medical schools nationwide.

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