Trump administration alleges UCLA medical school illegally uses race in admissions

Following a year-long inquiry into the admissions policies and practices at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, the Trump administration’s Department of Justice alleges that school leadership “intentionally selected applicants based on their race,” to the detriment of white and Asian applicants.

“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 great doctors,” said Harmeet K. Dhillon, an assistant attorney general for the DOJ.

In a statement, an unnamed UCLA spokesperson responded that the medical school is complying with all federal and state laws.

“The admissions process at [the] David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA 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 to all qualified students,” the statement said.

How does UCLA admit medical students?

The school’s website lists the following criteria:

• Undergraduate record
• Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) scores
• Letters of recommendation
• Graduate record (where applicable)
• Life experiences (research, volunteerism, clinical, work, leadership, publications)
• Admission interviews
• AAMC PREview Exam scores (for Traditional MD Program Track applicants only)

The DOJ investigation focused on three items: median GPA scores, MCAT scores and the PREview Exam.

What does the DOJ say about academic scores?

The report looks at median GPA and found that based on materials provided to the DOJ, the scores for some applicant groups were lower than others for the 2023 and 2024 admitted classes. Here’s 2023:

How does race matter in the medical field?

The DOJ investigation also takes issue with “a theory that increasing ‘diversity’ of the healthcare workforce will improve healthcare outcomes for Black and Hispanic patients” that it says was promoted by the program’s director showing an “intent to racially discriminate under the guise of saving lives and conceal her true motive to treat certain applicants unfavorably based on their race.”

The investigation also looks at the PREview Exam, which it says asks open-ended questions about whether applicants are from marginalized backgrounds. “By design, this question asks Black and Hispanic applicants to reveal their race so that DGSOM can know and consider it.”

A number of studies suggest that when patients have doctors of the same race (called “concordance”) it leads to better medical results. A 2018 study of Black men in Oakland suggested doctors and same-race patients had better communication that led to better outcomes, and a 2025 study out of UCLA found Hispanic Medicare patients had a lower readmission rate and length of stay when treated by Hispanic doctors.

What is the Trump administration looking for?

In a press release, the department noted that “medical schools use substantial federal financial assistance to train the next generation of doctors,” and that this fuels its “focus on eradicating illegal race politics from admissions at medical schools.”

Still, the administration has also curtailed that funding. Last year, the Republican-backed “big, beautiful bill” that President Donald Trump signed into law capped federal debt for professional degree students—a move that could push students to borrow from private lenders, which provide far fewer protections for loan repayment and don’t offer loan forgiveness.

A history of lawsuits between Trump and UCLA

The Department of Justice has repeatedly gone after the University of California in Trump’s second term. Earlier this year, the department sued the university over allegations that UCLA officials allowed antisemitism on campus, and unsuccessfully demanded a range of concessions to bring UCLA more in line with its ideology, in addition to more than $1 billion in fines. The administration also tried to freeze the university’s research funding, prompting an effort to have the state of California be a backstop.

What happens now?

The DOJ says it wants to find an agreement with the university “to ensure that admissions practices are brought into legal compliance.” A UCLA spokesperson said the university is reviewing the report, but did not outline next steps.

Disclosure: Julia Barajas is a part-time graduate student at UCLA Law.