The Department of Justice’s report, published on Thursday, said that while the Supreme Court allows universities that receive taxpayer funding to use race as “one of a number of factors” during admissions, “Yale’s use of race is anything but limited”.

“Yale uses race at multiple steps of its admissions process resulting in a multiplied effect of race on an applicant’s likelihood of admission,” it said.

Yale strongly rejected the report’s conclusions, which it said had been made before the university was able to provide all of the information requested by the Department of Justice.

“Had the Department fully received and fairly weighed this information, it would have concluded that Yale’s practices absolutely comply with decades of Supreme Court precedent,” Yale said in a statement.

The university said it considers a many factors during the admissions process and said it would not change its process “on the basis of such a meritless, hasty accusation.”

Last year, Harvard University was cleared of discrimination against Asian-American applicants by a federal judge following a lawsuit, although the ruling is now being appealed.

-BBC