Harvard University was similarly probed last year. The Department of Justice sided with the Asian-American complainants in late August; the lawsuit remains ongoing, however.
The investigation into Yale was spurred by a 2016 complaint to the departments by a group of Asian-American organizations which accused Yale, Brown University and Dartmouth College of treating potential Asian-American students differently during the admissions process on the basis of their ethnicity.
The DoE said in a Wednesday letter to the Asian American Coalition for Education — the group leading the charge — that it is handling the allegations separately according to the school that they are levied against. It also said that the probes into Dartmouth and Brown had been dropped.
Officials are investigating Yale because of "information related to a particular Asian-American applicant's experience," the letter said.
The DoE and the DoJ's civil rights branches will be responsible for the investigation.
"The Department of Justice takes extremely seriously any potential violation of an individual's constitutional rights," spokeswoman Kelly Laco told the Wall Street Journal. Yale, Brown and Dartmouth didn't respond to requests for comment.
