What the DOJ's Ohio State Finding Means for Black Medical School Admissions

A finding aimed at one school, felt by every school

On October 21, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Ohio State University College of Medicine discriminated against white and Asian applicants in its 2023, 2024, and 2025 entering classes. The Department says this violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and the Supreme Court's 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (DOJ press release).

The Department took aim at two things. First, Ohio State's "Holistic Approach," under which it says screened and interviewed Black applicants were about 2.8 times as likely to be admitted as Asian applicants with equal credentials. Second, what it calls a "side door": a pathway that admits some applicants without a screener score or an interview.

Ohio State strongly disagrees. The university says its College of Medicine does not consider race or ethnicity in admissions and that it will contest the findings (WOSU). The facts will be argued out between the university and the government.

My concern is what happens next, at Ohio State and at every other medical school in the country. The Department said plainly that it will keep investigating medical schools, negotiate settlements, and file suit when talks fail. Every admissions dean in America read that sentence. I want our community to understand what it means for the young Black men and women who want to become our next doctors.

We were already losing ground

This finding comes after two straight years of decline in Black medical school enrollment. Black matriculants fell 11.6% in the first class admitted after the Supreme Court ruling (STAT). They fell again in 2025.

Source: AAMC data, as reported by STAT and the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education.

Here is the part that troubles me most. In 2025, more Black students applied to medical school, up 1.8% from the year before. Fewer got in. Our young people are doing their part. The door is narrowing anyway.

Black Americans are roughly 13% of the U.S. population but only about 6% of practicing physicians. We were not close to parity before 2023. We are moving further away.

How this will affect Black applicants

I expect the biggest effect to come from fear, not from any court order. When the federal government names one school, others act before they are named. Here is what I expect to see over the next few admissions cycles.

1. Holistic review gets narrower. Schools will lean harder on MCAT scores and GPA because numbers are easy to defend. Students who overcame under-resourced schools, worked through college, or cared for family members may have those experiences weighed less.

2. Pathway and post-baccalaureate programs get scaled back or shut down. The "side door" language puts any non-traditional route under suspicion. Many of these programs have been how Black students from first-generation and working-class families reached medicine.

3. Outreach gets quieter. Pipeline programs, mentoring days, and recruitment at HBCUs may be renamed, opened to all, or dropped. Some of that is lawful and fine. Some of it will simply mean fewer Black students ever hear that medicine is for them.

4. Fewer Black students apply. Students watch the headlines. When they hear that schools are being investigated for admitting people who look like them, some will choose another path before they ever submit an application.

5. Historically Black medical schools carry more of the load. Howard, Meharry, Morehouse School of Medicine, and Charles R. Drew will likely see even more applicants, without the seats to take them all.

To be clear: the law bars schools from using race as a factor. It does not bar a school from valuing an applicant's lived experience, service to underserved communities, or the obstacles they overcame. The Supreme Court said as much in the SFFA opinion. My worry is that schools will retreat further than the law requires.

Why this matters for Black patients

This is not only about who gets a seat in a classroom. It is about who is in the exam room when a Black patient needs care.

The research is consistent. A 2020 study in PNAS found that the gap in survival between Black and white newborns shrank by about half when Black babies were cared for by Black physicians. A study of Black men in Oakland found they were more likely to agree to preventive screenings, including for diabetes and cholesterol, when they saw a Black doctor. Black physicians are also more likely to practice in underserved communities and care for Medicaid patients.

I see this in my own practice. Patients tell me things they have never told another doctor. They come back for follow-up. They bring their sons, their husbands, their mothers. Trust is a clinical tool, and it saves lives.

Black Americans still carry the highest rates of hypertension, kidney failure, and prostate cancer death in this country. We need more doctors who understand our community, not fewer.

What we do now

We cannot control what Washington does. We can control how prepared our students are. Here is my advice.

To students and parents:

• Keep applying. Do not let headlines talk you out of medicine.

• Build the strongest application you can: MCAT preparation, research, clinical hours, and shadowing. Start early, in high school if possible.

• Tell your story in your personal statement and secondary essays. Your experiences, the obstacles you overcame, and your commitment to your community are still allowed to count.

• Apply broadly, including to historically Black medical schools and osteopathic (DO) schools.

• Find a mentor. A physician who has walked this road can help you avoid mistakes that cost a cycle.

To medical schools:

• Follow the law, and do not go further than it requires. Outreach open to all students, mission-driven admissions, and review of lived experience remain lawful.

• Keep investing in pipeline programs that reach under-resourced high schools and colleges.

What NIAAH is doing:

The National Institute for African American Health was built for moments like this. Through NIAAH Scholars, we support pre-med and medical students with mentorship and guidance through the application process. We will keep doing that work, and we will expand it.

If you are a student who wants to become a physician, reach out to us. If you are a physician, volunteer to mentor. If you believe in this mission, support it.

The path to medicine just got harder for Black students. It has been hard before. We will help them walk it.

Gregory L. Hall, MD, is Founder and Board Chair of the National Institute for African American Health.