DOJ, Education Dept Launch Investigation into Yale over Alleged Admissions Discrimination

The Department of Justice and the Department of Education have launched an investigation focused on whether Yale University illegally discriminates against Asian-American applicants in its admissions process, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

The newspaper reported that the investigation stems from a 2016 complaint filed by the Asian American Coalition for Education and other Asian-American organizations, which claimed that Yale, Brown University and Dartmouth specifically treated Asian-American applicants differently based on race.

The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights notified the group behind the complaint on Wednesday that it is joining the probe.

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[Yale President Peter] Salovey said the university seeks to create a diverse student body through its admissions process and looks beyond academic criteria when determining which students are accepted.

He noted that the number of Asian-American students who arrive as freshmen each year has grown from 14 percent in the class of 2007 to 21.7 percent in the class of 2022.

“The creation of a diverse academic community has not come at the expense of applications of any racial or ethnic background,” Salovey said.

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The Department of Justice last month backed a group of Asian-American students suing Harvard for alleged discrimination in the admissions process.

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