Allan Bakke Application To Medical Schools

Allan Bakke was a thirty three year old white male who wanted to attend medical school. Bakke was a former officer in the United States Marine Corps and worked as an engineer for NASA. He attended the University of Minnesota under the Naval ROTC program and graduated with a 3.51 GPA, upon graduation Bakke joined the Marine Corps serving four years as part of the requirements of the ROTC program. During Bakke’s time in the Marine Corps he developed an interest in medical science leading him to attempt to gain admittance into a medical school. In 1972 Bakke applied to the University of Southern California and Northwestern University. Both schools denied Bakke admittance due to his age, many medical schools openly practiced age discrimination

Bakke’s first application to the University of California was submitted late due to a medical condition his mother had been suffering from at the time, the tardiness of the application was most likely a key factor in his rejection. Furthermore Bakke applied again in 1974, this time ensuring the application was submitted in a timely manner. To his dismay the second application was also rejected. Following his second rejection Bakke learned that many minority students with substantially lower qualifications had been admitted to the university under the special admission program. The program was designed as the schools affirmative action program to ensure racial discrimination did not take place during the admission process and to assist in diversifying the student population. The program reserved sixteen out of one hundred seats and was only available to minority students. The program also allowed for minority students to be admitted under lower standards than the regular

In late 1976, the university requested a stay be put on the order pending a petition for review. Justice William Rehnquist of the Supreme Court granted the stay. The court considered the case three times in 1977 needing four votes to grant review, it received the four votes needed each time but at the request of one of the justices the case was pushed for reconsideration. The court granted review after the third vote and was to be argued later on in the