DOJ: Yale School of Medicine racially discriminated in admissions

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division on Thursday said its yearlong probe of admissions policies and practices at the Yale School of Medicine found intentional racial discrimination. A preliminary review of applicant data from 2023 to 2025 showed that a black applicant was up to 29 times more likely to get an admissions interview than an equally credentialed Asian applicant, investigators said. The Justice Department earlier in May similarly found that the medical school at the University of California at Los Angeles engaged in race-based admissions.

Investigators said they looked through data beginning in 2023 because the Supreme Court that year ruled in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard that race-based admissions programs were illegal. Under that ruling, schools that receive federal funding are only allowed to consider how race affects a student’s life if it’s presented as part of their character qualities or abilities. But Yale’s admissions data showed that in the years after that ruling, black and Hispanic students continued to have much higher chances of admission than white or Asian students with the same scores, according to the Justice Department. Black and Hispanic students were consistently admitted with lower qualifications than students of other races, the department said.

What are the Justice Department’s next steps? The department will demand that the Yale School of Medicine comply with federal law as interpreted by the Supreme Court, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said in a statement. 

What does the school have to say? Yale’s associate vice president for communications told The Hill that the school would review the Justice Department’s claims but was confident in its admissions process. Admitted students displayed exceptional academic achievement and personal commitment, she said.

Dig deeper: Listen to Jenny Rough’s breakdown of the Supreme Court ruling striking down race-based admissions.