<p>"... The federal suits allege Harvard and UNC rely on race-based affirmative action policies that impact admissions of high-achieving white and Asian American students. The Harvard lawsuit also contends that the Ivy League university specifically limits the number of Asian Americans it admits each year." ...</p>
<p>This has been building for several years - I’d love to see them kick over the rock that is Ivy admissions. Discovery should be a hoot. It’ll be interesting to finally find out the true cost of a legacy/developmental admit to Harvard.</p>
<p>Also, if your defense of your admissions policies is a court case from 1978 that cited your admissions policies in 1977, you’re in trouble. A few things have changed since then - namely the number of highly qualified Asian American applicants to Harvard.</p>
<p>The problem is the IVY’s cant be completely populated by asian students… Private schools want diversity and social life… College would suck without it. Good for the asians though.</p>
<p>It will be interesting to see what happens with H since it is a private college. </p>
<p>I’m so sick of all the “woe is me, I’m Asian/Caucasian and I didn’t get accepted to a school with an almost minuscule acceptance rate. Poor me, a minority must have stolen my spot”. It’s nauseating how so many people think that’s just because you’re a minority you’re an automatic admit to college, especially an Ivy college. I wish they realized how little people of color populate Ivy campuses or college campuses in general. No minority stole your spot sorry kids. In regards to quotas, none of these colleges limit the amount of high-achieving Asian/white applicants, there are just too many high-achieving Asian/white kids to accept them all. This lawsuit is only whining and grumbling in legal form. This literally makes me ill, but at the same time I want this lawsuit to happen so they can really see how wrong they are. </p>
<p>I don’t care what Harvard does. If they want to accept only bright kids, or only rich kids, or only black, blue, or orange kids, I could care less. But UNC, with state funding is of more concern, to me. Personally, I like the Texas system.</p>
<p>But I agree with @mrmom62 it would be great to see what turns up during discover. It may, or may not, prove @ilariacaelestis correct. </p>
<p>There’s already a discussion of this rolling on the Parents Forum: <a href=“Harvard, you have been served - Parents Forum - College Confidential Forums”>Harvard, you have been served - Parents Forum - College Confidential Forums;
<p>The most important thing they could possibly turn up would be evidence of an “Asian quota”. Even at a private school, that could possibly be illegal. Anecdotally, there’s strong evidence such a quota exists, though how it’s implemented is anybodies guess. </p>
<p>One could also argue that evidence of donations influencing admissions would also be a violation of the tax code, since you’re getting something of value in exchange for your donation. This will be interesting, if not dismissed - and you can bet there are law firms all over Boston coming up with arguments to do just that.</p>
<p>
Actually, there is essentially no anecdotal evidence that such a quota exists. What there is is some statistical analysis that raises the question. There is no document, no admission by a former admissions officer, no smoking gun at all indicating that there is such a quota.</p>
<p>It’s anecdotal in the sense that it’s a peculiar pattern the defies explanation by normal means. Statistical analysis is a valid form of anecdotal evidence - after all, there is the legal theory of disparate impact, where you don’t even need to show that any one particular claimant was discriminated against as long as there is a pattern that a protected class was disproportionately affected by a particular policy. That’s also why there is such a thing as discovery, to look for hard evidence of such a policy. If the lawsuit is allowed to proceed, Harvard Admissions is going to get a colonoscopy. You can be sure they’ve covered their tracks as they knew this was coming some day, but A.) there’s always someone willing to talk in an organization as large as Harvard, B.) somewhere, someone left something in the system they shouldn’t have, C.) even without evidence of such a policy, if you ruled that Asian Americans were a protected class (and they have historically been subjected to discrimination), the mere fact that discovery finds they are held to a higher standard may be enough to win.</p>
<p>What’s interesting is on the one hand, Harvard admits they promote diversity while at the same denying that they practice discrimination. It’s a very fine line between the two, with lots of pretzel twisting by those trying to distinguish between “good” discrimination and “bad” discrimination.</p>
<p>See the Myth of Meritocracy by Unz (<a href=“http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-myth-of-american-meritocracy/”>http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-myth-of-american-meritocracy/</a>). The kickoff article on the statistics backing up the lawsuit.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.studentsforfairadmissions.org./”>http://www.studentsforfairadmissions.org./</a>
Still looking for students who were discriminated against by the current admissions process for additional plaintiffs.</p>
<p>what harvard does can be our business because … they take federal money. </p>
<p>We didn’t take your spot. . . . . Wasn’t us, we swear [-X </p>
<p>My minority Mexican-American son was waitlisted then rejected. </p>
<p>Sorry white/Asian kids, somebody ELSE took your spot. </p>