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Merit vs. diversity: Feds investigate five medical schools over possible admissions bias
Three federal agencies have launched investigations into five medical schools for alleged racial preferences, adding to the growing pile of med schools being probed to determine whether they continue to illegally use affirmative action admissions practices.
The latest round of investigations are a joint effort between the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Justice.
The investigation is part of the Trump administration’s “mission to eliminate racial discrimination in medical school admissions processes across the country,” according to the agencies’ Wednesday news release.
Dartmouth College Geisel School of Medicine, East Carolina University Brody School of Medicine, St. Louis University School of Medicine, Western University of Health Sciences, and William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine are named in the probe.
Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said some medical schools appear determined to advance diversity before merit.
“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,” Richey stated in the news release.
A spokesperson for the Western University of Health Sciences told The College Fix on Friday that the institution “complies with all state and federal laws governing its admissions practices. We have no further comment at this time.”
An East Carolina University spokesperson told The Fix that the school “received notice of the self-directed Department of Education probe late Tuesday afternoon” and “complies with the Supreme Court ruling in the Students for Fair Admission v. Harvard, related Presidential Executive Orders and other federal, state and UNC System guidance.”
“The university will respond to the Department of Education in accordance with applicable law,” the spokesperson added.
The Justice Department declined to comment on the ongoing investigations.
Dartmouth College Geisel School of Medicine, St. Louis University School of Medicine, and the William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine did not respond to The Fix’s request for comment.
The decision to investigate these five medical schools came just days after the Department of Justice announced its determination that the University of California San Diego School of Medicine illegally used race in its admissions process to favor black and Hispanic applicants over more qualified white and Asian candidates.
The department stated UCSD’s med school continued affirmative action in violation of civil rights laws and even after the Students for Fair Admissions decision.The feds argued the med school uses “hardship” admissions criteria to skirt the laws, as The College Fix reported last week.
Ending discrimination has been a focus of President Donald Trump throughout his second term.
In January 2025, the president signed an executive order directing federal agencies to “terminate all discriminatory and illegal preferences” and “combat illegal private-sector DEI preferences.”
Trump in August 2025 told higher education institutions receiving federal money to supply their admissions data in a transparency demand. That memorandum is currently tied up in the courts.
As for cracking down on med schools, the Department of Justice launched investigations into over 15 medical schools for alleged racial discrimination in the month of June alone.
MORE: UC Davis medical school openly ‘skirted’ Supreme Court ban on affirmative action, DOJ finds
MORE: UCLA Medical School discriminates against white, Asian students, Justice Department finds
