The United States Department of Justice has formally accused Yale University of illegally factoring race into admissions decisions for its medical school, marking the second institution this month to face such discrimination allegations from the federal agency.
In a letter addressed to Yale's legal counsel, Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, stated that a Justice Department investigation revealed that Black and Hispanic applicants to the medical school have significantly higher admission rates compared to white or Asian applicants, despite possessing lower grade-point averages and standardized test scores.
"Yale has continued its race-based admissions program despite the supreme court and the public's clear mandate for reform," Dhillon said in a statement. "This department will continue to shed light on these illegal practices, and demand that institutions of higher education comply with federal law."
The Justice Department's action follows a 2023 Supreme Court decision that banned the use of affirmative action in college admissions, specifically in cases involving Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. Since returning to office last year, President Donald Trump's administration has intensified pressure on universities to eliminate race as a factor in admissions, which conservatives view as unlawful discrimination.
Last week, the Justice Department notified the University of California, Los Angeles, that its medical school had illegally considered race in admissions. Yale officials and the attorney named in the letter, Peter Spivack, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In the letter to Yale, Dhillon alleged that the New Haven, Connecticut-based institution is violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination. The Justice Department is seeking a voluntary resolution agreement with the university, but Dhillon noted that the agency has the authority to take the school to court to enforce Title VI if compliance cannot be achieved voluntarily.
The Justice Department cited disparities in grade-point averages and standardized test scores as evidence of racial preferences in the incoming classes of 2023, 2024, and 2025. In Yale's most recent class, Black students had a median GPA of 3.88 and a median MCAT score in the 95th percentile, compared to Asian students with a median GPA of 3.98 and white students with a median GPA of 3.97. Both Asian and white students in that class had median MCAT scores in the 100th percentile.
"Based on our preliminary review of the applicant-level data, Yale's use of race resulted in a Black applicant having as much as 29 times higher odds of getting an interview for admission than an equally strong Asian applicant with similar academic credentials," Dhillon's letter stated.
The Justice Department also criticized Yale's use of a holistic admissions process as a means to consider race. The letter referenced Yale's amicus brief in the Students for Fair Admissions lawsuit that led to the 2023 Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action, in which the school argued it could not maintain diverse classes without explicitly considering race. The department argued that Yale's ability to maintain similarly diverse classes after the ruling demonstrated a willful failure to comply with the decision.
In March, a coalition of 17 Democratic state attorneys general filed a lawsuit challenging a Trump administration policy requiring higher education institutions to collect data showing they are not considering race in admissions.
