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Thursday, October 22, 2026

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Civil rights · Thursday, October 22, 2026

Justice Department finds race bias in Ohio State admissions

The File desk · Oct. 22, 2026, 6:40 a.m. ET

Confirmed1 primary sources

Status

Confirmed as the Justice Department's findings, announced Oct. 21, 2026. The department says Ohio State's medical school discriminated by race. Ohio State's response was not obtained. The ratios in the release are the department's.
  • Confirmed
    The department said the College of Medicine discriminated against white and Asian applicants in the classes entering in 2023, 2024, and 2025.
  • Confirmed
    It said it will file suit if settlement talks fail. Ohio State's response was not obtained.
The Justice Department said Wednesday that Ohio State's medical school discriminated by race when it admitted the classes that entered in 2023, 2024, and 2025. The department says it is in settlement talks and will sue if those talks fail. Ohio State's response was not obtained.1
The findings, the department said, are under and the Supreme Court's decision in . The department said that Black applicants who were screened and interviewed were about 2.8 times as likely to be admitted as Asian applicants with equal credentials. It described a “side door” in which, for the 2024 and 2025 classes combined, Black applicants were four times as likely to be admitted as white applicants, and no Asian applicants were admitted. Those ratios are the department's.1
A findings letter is linked from the release and was not opened, so this story does not go beyond the release. Harmeet K. Dhillon is the official quoted. The university's answer is unknown.
Why it matters (Estimate). Estimate. A medical-school seat is a career. The department says race changed who got one, after the Supreme Court restricted that practice. The university has not answered on a page this desk obtained. If the talks fail, the next step the department named is a lawsuit.
The school named in the release is the Ohio State University College of Medicine.
How we know

Notes

  1. 1.Department of Justice, Oct. 21, 2026. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-finds-ohio-state-medical-school-discriminates-based-race-admissions The department says the Ohio State University College of Medicine discriminated against white and Asian students in the classes entering in 2023, 2024, and 2025, under and . Black applicants screened and interviewed were about 2.8 times as likely to be admitted as Asian applicants with equal credentials. For 2024 and 2025 combined, the department says, Black applicants were four times as likely as white applicants to be admitted through what it calls a side door, and no Asian applicants were admitted that way. Settlement talks are underway. If they fail, the department says it will file suit. Ohio State's response was not obtained. The findings letter was not opened.

What is still unknown or disputed

  • Ohio State's response. Not obtained.
  • What is in the findings letter beyond the release. The letter was not opened.
  • Whether a suit will be filed.

Primary sources

Every claim in this story is drawn from the documents below. If a fetch failed, that is recorded on the card.

  1. Source 1

    Findings on Ohio State medical admissions

    U.S. Department of Justice · October 21, 2026

    The department said the College of Medicine discriminated by race in the 2023, 2024, and 2025 entering classes.

    https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-finds-ohio-state-medical-school-discriminates-based-race-admissions

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