Justice Department Finds Yale Admissions Illegally Discriminated Against Asian American and White Applicants

A two-year long Justice Department investigation has found that Yale University illegally discriminated against Asian American and white applicants in violation of federal civil rights law.

In a letter to the college’s attorneys Thursday, the department said that Yale “rejects scores of Asian American and white applicants each year based on their race, whom it otherwise would admit.”

“Yale’s race discrimination imposes undue and unlawful penalties on racially-disfavored applicants, including in particular Asian American and White applicants,” Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband, the head of the department’s civil rights division, wrote.

The investigation found that Asian American and white students have “only one-tenth to one-fourth of the likelihood of admission as African American applicants with comparable academic credentials,” the Justice Department said.

Yale uses race as a factor in multiple steps of its admissions process and also “racially balances its classes,” the department said.

“Unlawfully dividing Americans into racial and ethnic blocs fosters stereotypes, bitterness, and division,” Dreiband said. “It is past time for American institutions to recognize that all people should be treated with decency and respect and without unlawful regard to the color of their skin.”