Justice Department Finds University of California Davis Medical School Discriminates Based on Race in Admissions

The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division announced today that it determined the University of California, Davis School of Medicine (Davis Med), discriminates based on race in its admissions process, violating the U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 decision in, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (SFFA). The determination follows a six-month investigation by the Department into Davis Med's admissions practices.

"Davis Med's actions reflect both unabashed contempt for the rule of law and plain disregard for the potential public health consequences of putting race over merit, skill, and competence," said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. "The Department will not allow schools to violate federal law without consequence."

The Department's investigation found that Davis Med adopted admissions practices with the express purpose of circumventing the Supreme Court's decision in SFFA, which banned affirmative action in higher education admissions. Documents provided by Davis Med show that its leadership openly boasted about "skirting" the Supreme Court's ruling by using certain class-based "socioeconomic variables" or "disadvantages" as proxies for race (e.g., family income, parental education, or being from an "underserved area"). To admit more so-called "underrepresented minorities," Davis Med created the "Davis Scale," which ranks an applicant based upon perceived "disadvantages" while strategically adjusting the impact of his or her GPA and MCAT scores. The result: in 2024, Davis Med became the third most racially diverse medical school in the country, behind only historically black universities.

The Department's review of Davis Med's admissions data from 2023 to 2025 revealed that 93% of white and certain Asian admittees had MCAT scores at or above the average black admittee. It also showed that black and Hispanic applicants were admitted at rates up to six times higher than whites and Asians, despite consistently having, on average, lower academic qualifications.

Davis Med is just one of several medical schools that continue to flout SFFA's prohibition on race-conscious admissions. Last month, the Department determined that UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine and Yale University School of Medicine discriminate based on race in admissions.

The Department will engage in settlement negotiations with any school we've determined violated the law to ensure its admissions practices are brought into compliance. If those efforts fail, the Department will sue the schools.

Medical schools receive substantial federal financial assistance and are subject to federal non-discrimination laws. The Department will continue to monitor and ensure their compliance with federal law.

Note: Read the Department's findings here.