The Justice Department on Thursday accused Yale University of illegally considering race in admissions to its medical school, sending the allegation in a letter to a lawyer for Yale that was announced as part of the department’s civil rights enforcement. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon wrote that the DOJ’s investigation found Black and Hispanic students had a much higher chance of admission than white or Asian students, even though the DOJ said those groups had lower grade-point averages and lower test scores.
Dhillon tied the allegations to federal civil-rights law. In the letter, she said Yale’s conduct violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination, and she said the department is seeking to enter into a voluntary resolution agreement with Yale. Dhillon also said the department has authority to take the school to court if it cannot obtain compliance through voluntary means.
The DOJ’s letter said it compared admission outcomes and cited differences in grade-point averages and standardized test scores across applicant groups for the incoming classes of 2023, 2024 and 2025. For Yale’s most recent class, Dhillon’s letter said Black students had a median GPA of 3.88 and a median MCAT score in the 95th percentile, compared with Asian students’ median GPA of 3.98 and Asian students’ median MCAT score in the 100th percentile, and compared with white students’ median GPA of 3.97 and MCAT median score in the 100th percentile.
Dhillon also said the DOJ’s preliminary review of applicant-level data showed racial preferences in interview access. Her letter stated that Yale’s use of race resulted in a Black applicant being as much as 29 times higher odds of getting an interview for admission than an equally strong Asian applicant with similar academic credentials. The letter also described Yale’s holistic admissions approach as a mechanism through which the school considered race.
In explaining the department’s conclusion, Dhillon’s letter cited Yale’s earlier position in litigation over affirmative action. The letter said Yale had cited its own amicus brief in the Student for Fair Admissions lawsuit that led to the 2023 Supreme Court ruling, where the school said it would not be able to maintain diverse classes without explicit consideration of race. The department said Yale was able to maintain similarly diverse classes despite that brief as evidence that the school had engaged in race discrimination, and Dhillon wrote that the lack of change after the Supreme Court ruling showed what she called “a willful failure to comply with that decision.”
Yale responded with confidence in its admissions process. The university said in a statement that its School of Medicine “is confident in the rigorous admissions process we follow,” and that it would review the Justice Department letter. The school said the students admitted to Yale School of Medicine “demonstrate exceptional academic achievement and personal commitment,” and it said its program encourages “curiosity and critical thinking,” with graduates going on to become leaders in clinical care, research and public service.
The dispute sits within a broader federal push on university admissions following the Supreme Court’s 2023 ban on affirmative action in college admissions. The DOJ said the decision prohibits universities from using race, and the AP report noted that since President Donald Trump returned to office last year, his administration has put pressure on universities to stop using race in admissions—an approach conservatives describe as required by law. The DOJ said last week it notified the University of California, Los Angeles, that its medical school also illegally considered race in admissions.
The letter comes as states also move through legal channels on the administration’s admissions-related enforcement. The AP report said that 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 meant to show they are not considering race in admissions.