A leading California medical school is the latest institution targeted by the Department of Justice over alleged racial discrimination, putting millions of dollars in federal funding at potential risk.
Federal investigators accuse University of California, San Francisco, officials of unlawfully discriminating against white and Asian applicants. According to findings obtained by the California Post, Black applicants with similar qualifications had nearly 13 times the admission odds of white applicants in 2025.
Harmeet K. Dhillon, the assistant attorney general overseeing the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, sent UCSF Chancellor Sam Hawgood a sharply worded, nine-page findings letter Tuesday. The letter calls on the medical school to negotiate a resolution or face a lawsuit and other enforcement measures.
“Unfortunately, at UCSF Medical School, MCAT scores and undergraduate GPAs have taken a backseat to race,” Dhillon said in a statement to The Post.
“Aspiring doctors should be admitted based on their qualifications. The Supreme Court has spoken clearly — federally funded medical schools may not admit students based on misguided and illegal notions of diversity.”
The Justice Department also reported that, on average, Black and Hispanic students admitted from 2023 through 2025 had lower test scores and undergraduate grades than the average white and Asian applicants rejected by the school. UCSF admits only 2.5% of the more than 10,000 applicants it receives each year.
In 2025, UCSF admitted 7% of Black applicants and 4.8% of Hispanic applicants, compared with 1.7% of white applicants and 2% of Asian applicants, according to federal officials.
White applicants that year had an average MCAT score of 519, placing them in the 96th percentile, and an average GPA of 3.95. Asian applicants averaged a 518 MCAT score, in the 95th percentile, and a 3.93 GPA. The average scores for admitted Black applicants were 514 on the MCAT and 3.86 in GPA, while Hispanic admits averaged 513 and 3.88, respectively.
“In other words, the average admitted black and Hispanic student academically underperformed the average rejected white and Asian student,” Dhillon wrote.
The findings are part of a broader Trump administration campaign, led by Dhillon, targeting university admissions practices nationwide after the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling barring race-conscious college admissions. The Justice Department has previously issued similar findings involving the medical schools at UCLA and UC San Diego.
The department concluded that UCSF “deliberately discriminated” on the basis of race in admissions and diversity pipeline programs for the incoming classes of 2023, 2024 and 2025, in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
UCSF receives nearly $1 billion in federal funding each year, including a $5 million Justice Department grant, according to the letter.
UCSF officials rejected the allegations in a statement Tuesday, saying they “disagree” with the Justice Department’s findings.
“Admission to the UCSF School of Medicine is among the most selective in the country,” the officials said.
“Every applicant is evaluated through a rigorous, individualized review process that prioritizes academic excellence. Academic achievement is fundamental to that review. Grades, prior coursework, and MCAT scores are important measures of an applicant’s readiness for a UCSF medical education.”
The school said its review also considers “clinical experience, research, service, leadership” as it evaluates applicants who may become future physicians.
Federal investigators allege that UCSF used application essays, hardship questions, interviews and other ostensibly race-neutral criteria as proxies to identify and favor applicants from racial groups the school regards as underrepresented in medicine.
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The department also highlighted two pipeline programs offering specialized admission tracks, scholarships and other support. Black, Hispanic and other designated students accounted for 89% of enrollment in one program during the 2024-25 academic year, according to the DOJ.
The investigation began in March, and UCSF provided admissions data after receiving multiple extensions. However, the school submitted only 83 additional documents, most of which federal officials considered unresponsive. Investigators also said UCSF failed to explain racial disparities in the grades and MCAT scores of admitted students.
Earlier this month, the Justice Department accused UC Berkeley’s law school of deliberately discriminating against white and Asian applicants, finding that a comparable Black applicant had 5.8 times greater odds of admission in 2025.
The DOJ found in May that Yale’s medical school intentionally used racial preferences and proxies in admissions. In February, the department sued Harvard to obtain admissions records the university allegedly withheld from investigators reviewing its compliance with federal civil rights law.
Dhillon invited UCSF to negotiate an agreement to change its admissions practices and pipeline programs, giving the school 10 days to respond. If an agreement cannot be reached by Oct. 2, the feds could seek to force compliance through a lawsuit.
“Academic excellence has always been central to our admissions process,” UCSF officials said. “We will continue to engage constructively with the department and look forward to resolving this matter.”
