Investigation Reveals UCLA Medical School Illegally Discriminates Against Whites and Asians in Admissions

The Trump Justice Department earlier this month announced that its year-long investigation determined that UCLA medical school illegally discriminates against whites and Asians in admissions in favor of lesser qualified Latinos and blacks. 

But the David Geffen School of Medicine is denying that it discriminates and defending its “holistic” evaluation of applicants that the Justice Department says is a subterfuge for racial preferences. 

“UCLA’s admissions process has been focused on racial demographics at the expense of merit and excellence–allowing racial politics to distract the school from the vital work of training doctors,” said Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon. “Racism in admissions is both illegal and anti-American, and this Department will not allow it to continue.”

In a seven page letter to a lawyer for UCLA detailing the findings, Dhillon said, “DGSOM’s internal policies, publicly distributed literature, and email correspondence of its leadership, consistently and emphatically demonstrate DGSOM’s intent to use race in admissions decisions despite” the 2023 Supreme Court ruling outlawing such preferences. 

 Dhillon cited one internal memo distributed among admissions officials that promoted the “theory that increasing ‘diversity’ of the healthcare workforce will improve healthcare outcomes for Black and Hispanic patients, with the implication that denying Black and Hispanic students admission to medical school now will injure and kill Black and Hispanic patients in the future.” 

She said the memo demonstrated a determination to “treat certain applicants unfavorably based on their race.” 

That seems to be what is happening. Metrics that Dhillon included in her letter consistently showed blacks admitted with lower qualifications than whites and Asians.  

For example, for the incoming 2023 class, blacks had a median GPA of 3.63; for whites it was 3.75 and Asians 3.81.  That same year, the median MCAT score was 507 for blacks and 514 for whites and Asians. Latinos had a median GPA of 3.55 and median MCAT score of 507. 

Dhillon said that the medical school’s “holistic review” of applicants, which is supposed to measure amorphous characteristics, such as  personal growth and character,  is just used as an excuse to admit lesser qualified blacks and Latinos. “DGSOM’s holistic approach instead results in significantly lower median MCAT/GPA scores for Black and Hispanic students compared with other groups.”

She also said the school “uses its holistic-review procedure to uncover and then use applicants’ race through direct and indirect means.” The indirect means included asking questions like whether applicants have overcome adversity so that answers reveal their race. 

Dhillon concluded that, “DGSOM discriminated against other applicants to benefit preferred race classes of Black and Hispanic. This discrimination is apparent from the documents expressing an intent to discriminate, plus the significant disparity in objective academic metrics between Black and Hispanic applicants compared with applicants from other racial categories.” 

She said the Department is seeking to enter “into a voluntary resolution agreement with the University to ensure that admissions practices are brought into legal compliance. “

But the school sounds a bit recalcitrant. 

The David Geffen School of Medicine said in a press statement provided to the California Globe that its admissions process “is based on merit and grounded in a rigorous, comprehensive review of each applicant. We are confident in our practices and our mission to maintain access to a high-quality education for all qualified students. 

“We are carefully reviewing the Department of Justice’s report. The David Geffen School of Medicine is committed to providing equal opportunity to all applicants and fully complying with federal and state laws.”

 The Justice Department’s findings mirror the language in the motion it filed this January requesting to intervene in the federal lawsuit that the anti-woke medical group Do No Harm filed last year against the David Geffen School of Medicine for its “systemically racist approach” to admissions that favors blacks and Latinos. 

On February 19,  United States District Court for the Central District of California Judge John Holcomb granted the Department’s motion to intervene.   

In a telephone interview, Do No Harm founder Stanley Goldfarb, MD, said that he welcomed the Justice Department’s recent determination against UCLA medical school and that, “Racial issues should not enter into decisions about higher education.”

“We want to see a country where we are a race blind country and everybody has an equal chance and nobody is hurt because of how they look” and patients are “treated by the best qualified individuals.”