Following the Supreme Court's decision to eliminate race-based admissions in higher education, the University of California, Davis Medical School's approach to evaluating applicants is gaining attention. The school employs a "socioeconomic disadvantage scale" (SED), assigning each applicant a score from 0 to 99 based on factors like family income, parental education, and whether they reside in underserved communities. Children of physicians, for instance, receive a score of zero. This scale considers eight different socioeconomic factors to gauge an applicant's level of disadvantage.

UC Davis emphasizes that admissions decisions are made holistically, incorporating the SED score alongside traditional metrics like grades, test scores, letters of recommendation, essays, and interviews. While there isn't a rigid formula for balancing these elements, the school highlights a simulation demonstrating increased representation of underrepresented and economically disadvantaged students. The former rose from 10.7% to 15.3%, while the latter tripled from 4.6% to 14.5%.

Implemented in 2012, the UC Davis model has been recognized for diversifying its student body. The latest incoming class of 133 students boasts 50% representation from groups underrepresented in medicine. Specifically, 36% are Asian, 30% Hispanic, 14% Black, and 15% White. A significant majority (84%) come from disadvantaged backgrounds, with 42% being first-generation college students.

This approach comes in the wake of the Supreme Court's overturning of affirmative action, a decision that echoes a 1978 case involving UC Davis, where the court disallowed racial quotas but permitted race as an admissions factor. California subsequently banned affirmative action in public education and employment in 1996. President Biden has since encouraged colleges to consider adversity measures to promote diversity.

The increasing emphasis on race in medical school admissions has been a recent trend. An Association of American Medical Colleges analysis revealed that 43% of 101 U.S. medical schools incorporate DEI factors in faculty promotion and tenure policies, while 100% have admissions policies aimed at fostering student diversity.