The Justice Department’s civil rights division said Thursday it is investigating 15 medical schools across the United States over allegations that their admissions processes may discriminate based on race, the latest in a series of federal actions targeting diversity considerations in higher education.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, who leads the civil rights division, said in a statement that “many of America’s top medical schools appear more concerned about the demographics of their incoming classes than training students to succeed in the profession.” She added that the department “will continue to protect American students from discriminatory and illegal preferences in admissions – especially in professions as critical as medicine, where quality of training should be the top priority.”
The investigations focus on whether the schools, all of which receive federal funding, comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, according to the department. The DoJ said it has not reached any conclusions regarding the schools under review.
The announcement follows the DoJ’s findings last month that the medical schools at the University of California, Los Angeles and Yale University had illegally used race in admissions. The department has not publicly identified the 15 additional schools now under investigation.
After the earlier findings, both universities defended their admissions policies. A spokesperson for UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine said its admissions process is “based on merit” and that the school is committed to complying with state and federal laws. A spokesperson for Yale said that students admitted to Yale School of Medicine “demonstrate exceptional academic achievement and personal commitment” and that its program “encourages curiosity and critical thinking.”
The DoJ’s investigation of medical schools is part of a broader Trump administration effort to increase scrutiny of college admissions since President Donald Trump retook office in January 2025. The administration has alleged that universities are using essays and other application materials as indirect ways to factor race into enrollment decisions, a practice conservatives argue constitutes illegal discrimination despite the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling that prohibited the direct use of race in admissions.
In March, the DoJ launched investigations into admissions practices at Stanford University, Ohio State University, and the University of California, San Diego, focusing on whether medical school applicants faced race-based discrimination. Trump also signed an executive action requiring higher education institutions to provide data proving they are not using race to assess admissions.
In March, 17 Democratic state attorneys general sued to block that executive action. A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction in April halting the administration’s effort to collect the data.
The crackdown on medical school admissions reflects a broader federal campaign targeting higher education. Over the past year, the Trump administration has taken action against universities over campus speech and student activism, diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, transgender rights, and other initiatives the administration has characterized as promoting “woke” ideologies. The administration has argued that such policies do “not reflect the values of the vast majority of the American public,” drawing widespread public backlash and legal challenges.