- Three medical schools face DOJ investigations to see if they discriminated in admissions.
- The schools were ordered to provide admissions data or risk federal funding interruptions.
- Democratic attorneys general are challenging the DOJ's demand for detailed admissions data.
The Trump administration has asked the Department of Justice to investigate admission practices at three prominent medical schools, according to The New York Times, which cited officials within the administration and said it had also seen related documents.
The issue under purview is whether Stanford University, Ohio State University and the University of California San Diego are guilty of racial discrimination in the medical school admission process. The Times said that the three schools were ordered to provide “extensive lists of data” by April 24 or “risk interruptions to essential federal funding.”
According to the report, the schools are being told to provide applicant information from the past seven years, including home ZIP codes, test scores and whether or not the applicants have ties to alumni or university donors. “The administration also demanded copies of any internal messages at the universities about diversity, equity and inclusion and any correspondence between school officials and pharmaceutical companies about admissions policies,” per the Times.
The letters received by the schools were signed by Harmeet K. Dhillon, an assistant attorney general over civil rights within the DOJ.
The Times noted that the federal government is a primary source of research funding for universities. The Association of American Medical Colleges has said that medical schools are, in fact, the biggest recipients of National Institutes of Health research grants.
Lawsuit pushes back
“Earlier this month, a group of 17 state attorneys general, all Democrats, sued the Education Department over the government’s growing appetite for admissions data. They argued, in part, that the depth of detail sought by the government posed a ‘significant risk’ of identifying students and exposing sensitive information, including financial aid,” the Times reported.
There’s a fair amount of privacy concern because medical schools do not admit a lot of students, which makes it potentially easier to identify to whom specific data refers. Of this trio of universities, Ohio State admitted the most last year, at 211. The other two schools had much smaller incoming classes.
Dhillon dismissed privacy concerns, noting that federal civil rights laws trump them.
Withholding funds to shape policies
According to Reuters, “Since taking office for his second term in January 2025, President Donald Trump’s administration has threatened to withhold federal funds from universities over issues including pro-Palestinian protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, diversity initiatives and transgender policies."
Race discrimination investigations have gained steam since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2023 ended affirmative action at colleges and universities.