Special Admissions Case Study

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The medical school at University of California Davis had a special affirmative action program where minority groups members or economically and/or educationally disadvantaged applicants were given a special admission process where 16 places of the class’s 100 were reserved for them. Bakke was examined under the general admissions process and denied both times he applied despite his scores being significantly higher than the special program’s admitted students in both tests and interviews. Bakke then took to court claiming that the medical school had denied him admission solely on the basis of race, violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which states that no person shall …show more content…

When reviewing this case, several question came to mind. What were the differences in the special admissions and general admissions process? Would the special program accept disadvantaged whites and would that have influenced the decision of the court? What classifies as a minority or disadvantaged? To what extent can race be used as a criteria in the admission process? The general admissions process at the University of California Medical School at Davis had certain criteria. One of those was a 2.5 gpa cutoff and a interview rating on a scale of 1 to 100. Those examined under the special program were exempt from the 2.5 gpa cutoff and were not ranked amongst those in the general admission process in an effort by the school to redress minority exclusions from the medical profession. Before this effort, the class contained three Asians, no blacks, no Hispanics, and no American Indians. The special program resulted in the admission of 21 black students, 30 Hispanics, and 12 Asians, compared to the regular admissions program which produced 1 black, 6 Hispanics, and 37 Asians. Majority of the minorities admitted, predominantly blacks and hispanics, were admitted

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