Education Department probes race-conscious admissions policies at five medical schools

The Education Department is investigating complaints of illegal favoritism toward minorities in medical school admissions at Dartmouth College, East Carolina University, Saint Louis University, William Carey University and Western University of Health Sciences. The agency announced the probes by its Office of Civil Rights as “part of a joint effort with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights and the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division to advance President Trump’s mission to eliminate racial discrimination in medical school admissions processes across the country.” “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 Kimberly Richey, the Education Department’s assistant secretary for civil rights. The Education Department did not identify the source of the complaints. If found guilty of violating federal civil rights law, the five medical schools could lose federal funding for scholarships and grants. Three of the schools insisted on their innocence in statements to The Washington Times. “Western University of Health Sciences complies with all state and federal laws governing its admissions practices,” said Jill Ferreira, chief of staff for the private school’s two campuses in Oregon and California. “We have no further comment at this time.” “This is not a finding of wrongdoing,” said Jana Barnello, a spokeswoman for Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine in New Hampshire. “We remain confident in Geisel’s admissions process and will respond to the Department of Education’s request for information in due course, consistent with applicable law.” East Carolina University officials said they received notice of “the self-directed Department of Education probe” on July 21. “The university will respond to the Department of Education in accordance with applicable law,” said a spokesperson for the public research campus in Greenville, North Carolina. The spokesperson insisted that East Carolina complies with all federal, presidential and state anti-discrimination directives — and with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned racial preferences in college admissions. Saint Louis University and William Carey University did not respond to emails seeking comment. Do No Harm, an anti-woke healthcare advocacy group, has filed several lawsuits accusing medical schools of flouting the high court’s 2023 ruling as part of an agenda to engineer racial equity among future physicians. Ian Kingsbury, director of Do No Harm’s Center for Accountability in Medicine, called it “encouraging to see” the Education Department investigating five more medical schools. “Merit, not race, must be the deciding factor in medical school admissions,” Mr. Kingsbury said in an email. “Those who continue to practice illegal discrimination must be held to account.” Do No Harm estimated last year that 67 of the nation’s 154 accredited medical schools defied Mr. Trump’s executive orders by keeping or renaming their diversity, equity and inclusion offices. Medical school enrollment reached an all-time high of more than 100,000 students nationwide during the 2025-26 academic year, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. The nonprofit association reported in December that women made up the majority of new students for the first time. It said enrollment for other “historically underrepresented” groups included 0.9% who identified as American Indian or Alaska Native, 8.4% as Black or African American, 11.5% as Hispanic or Latino and 0.4% as Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. The association has argued for years that the medical profession must include more women and racial minorities to address historic gaps in health outcomes for those groups. “Learning and working alongside those with different life experiences or opinions encourages open-mindedness, catalyzes creativity and discovery, and enhances complex problem-solving, prediction, and forecasting — all to the benefit of a growing patient population,” the association said in an online statement on the Supreme Court’s ruling, last updated in May 2025. Attorney Heather MacDonald, a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute, said it’s “doubtful that they have abandoned preferences altogether.” “Absent strong proof to the contrary, it is a near-certainty that every medical school in the country has been favoring less qualified Black applicants over more qualified White and Asian applicants,” Ms. MacDonald said in an email. Omekongo Dibinga, a professor of intercultural communications affiliated with American University’s Antiracist Research and Policy Center, questioned the Trump administration’s motives. “They are making it harder for non-White men to attend these schools, while making it easier for White men,” Mr. Dibinga said. Story Topics