Elite universities in early admissions probe – Report

The United States Justice Department has sent letters to top universities as it probes whether some institutions violated antitrust laws by sharing information to aid in the enforcement of their early decision policies, according to news reports, writes John Bowden for The Hill.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the department sent letters to Wesleyan University, Middlebury College, Amherst College and Grinnell College, as well as several other liberal arts universities with high entrance requirements, asking the universities to preserve communications related to the swapping of names of accepted students.

The Justice Department is probing whether universities violated the law by sharing names of early decision students to determine whether those same students made multiple early decision applications. Dozens of American universities have early decision options, including some of the most selective institutions in the country such as Johns Hopkins, Cornell and Dartmouth universities.
Full report on The Hill site