The US Department of Education has opened civil rights investigations into five medical schools for alleged racial discrimination in admissions, the latest move in the Trump administration’s campaign targeting higher education.

The Office for Civil Rights announced on July 22 that it had opened probes into Dartmouth College’s Geisel School of Medicine, East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine, St. Louis University School of Medicine, Western University of Health Sciences, and William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. The investigations will examine whether the schools violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars discrimination based on race at federally funded institutions, according to a department press release.

“Your race should not decide whether or not you can study medicine, yet many schools seem to be more focused on meeting racial quotas than selecting individuals who have earned entrance based on merit,” said Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey in the department’s announcement.

Two days earlier, the Justice Department announced a finding that UC San Diego School of Medicine had violated Title VI and the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which banned race-conscious admissions. Officials said in a July 20 press release that UC San Diego used “hardship” application questions as a racial proxy to favor underrepresented minority applicants.

“Rather than rely on MCAT scores or GPA, San Diego Med’s shadow application process unlawfully judged applicants for admission based on their race,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon in the release.

UC San Diego disputed the findings. “All applicants to the school’s Doctor of Medicine program must meet strict academic thresholds, a requirement that is and was applied uniformly to all applicants,” the school said in a statement reported by The Hill.

The Education Department’s announcement follows a June 2026 DOJ action opening 15 separate investigations into medical school admissions, according to Inside Higher Ed.

Critics have accused the administration is overreaching. “What [past investigation reports] indicate is that the department has a shaky grasp of what the Supreme Court’s majority opinion actually said,” wrote James Murphy, an admissions researcher from the higher ed nonprofit Class Action, in a personal blog post.

The DOJ, he said, has “an even shakier grasp of how admissions works and no grasp at all on what the federal government’s role is since the DOJ seems to think it should be able to dictate who is qualified to be a doctor in the United States and who is not.”

The Association of American Medical Colleges defended holistic admissions. “It takes more than test scores to become a good doctor,” Alison Whelan, the group’s chief medical officer, said in a statement to Inside Higher Ed.

Supporters of the investigations disagree. “Accounting for race in admissions is illegal,” said Kurt Miceli, chief medical officer at Do No Harm, a nonprofit that opposes diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in healthcare, in a statement to Inside Higher Ed.

East Carolina University told local media it complies with applicable law, ABC 11 in Durham, North Carolina, reported.

Should settlement talks with schools found in violation fail, the DOJ said it could file suit to try and force schools to change admissions policies.

The experts cited in this article had no relevant disclosures.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.