<p>The U.S. Education Department is probing complaints that Harvard University and Princeton University discriminate against Asian-Americans in undergraduate admissions. </p>
<p>Both complaints involve the same applicant, who was among the top students in his California high school class and whose family originally came from India, according to the applicant’s father, who declined to be identified. </p>
<p>here we go again......
Interesting to note that an Asian student who complained about being denied at Princeton in 2006, matriculated at Yale, subsequently transferred to Harvard and graduated in 2011, and has refuse to comment on this case. </p>
<p>". Li enrolled at Yale University and later transferred to Harvard, graduating in 2010. He declined to comment, citing concerns about a backlash. "</p>
<p>When I saw this article earlier, I was wondering how long it would take before showing up here. </p>
<p>Perhaps I should write the script for the “movie” that is about to be shown here for the nth time. I also could offer a preliminary list of the cast of characters that are bound to be sharpening their wit, greasing their cut/paste tools, and starting to feel that bit of foam building in the mouth. And, of course, I should not spend much time on the epilogue as it is highly predictable and repetitive.</p>
<p>I cant wait!
actually it would be a relief if no one posted a response, especially those who often come at others with “knives drawn” when talking about college admissions!. but thats probably asking too much…</p>
<p>Of course, the argument goes around forever because, from the outside, an opaque holistic admissions process as used in the schools in question can only feed speculation, not provide anything provable.</p>
<p>No surprise. There is ample empirical evidence which shows that Asians are held to a much higher standard. Asian-Americans are now the most discriminated group in America; they’re today’s 1920’s jews and pre-civil rights blacks.</p>
<p>Admissions have to be “holistic,” which is of course the fig leaf for otherwise relatively (that is the key word!) less academically qualified URMs, athletes, “development” ($$) admits, and legacies. Whew!! Structurally, with alums tied into athletic performance and the government hooked on URM admits, the colleges really have no room to go to an Oxbridge system. There, kids cross the hurdle only after they achive a certain level on their exams (and the level is completely transparent and known to everyone), they apply and write a personal essay (just one, which goes to all and to only the 5 colleges they are permitted to apply to, and not high-falutin’ or egregiously self-important supplements like Wake’s or Elon’s or Notre Dame’s), and then, based on this, the school may or may not choose to interview them personally with at least two - three separate interviews from professors actually likley to have them in class and then, finally, the candidate may also take a admissions exam that covers their area of interest right then and there.</p>
<p>Applications to the Ivies would, I expect, drop by more than 50% and they actually would have to do some real work instead of arguing in committee whose kid was more disadvantaged than the other but still raised genetically-modified hamsters for Intel.</p>
<p>Imagine if colleges dropped the SATs and ACTs and evaluated based on the application somewhat like Placido speculates…can you imagine the screaming that would occur?</p>
<p>I think white males would beg to differ too…</p>
<p>When ever I see stories like this I always think “well, it sounds like Harvard made the right decision then”…</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure that if his stats were listed here, everyone here could pick out why he didn’t get in…without knowing if he was Asian, White, Black, etc. Let’s see his GPA, test scores and EC’s from high school…</p>
<p>That what I don’t get. Why they feel they are entitled to an Ivy education. It is a very limited resource and must be used for the common good. I am not convinced that 4.0 and 2400 Asian person is better than a 2100 and 3.9 AA. There is more than one type of genius.</p>
<p>Old news (6 years ago) and many long old CC threads already about this - </p>
<p>
The person sounds like an entitled-minded baby.</p>
<p>OTOH it’s clear that most of these colleges DO use racial discrimination as an admission factor to some extent so if a preference is given to one based on race it necessarily works against another based on race.</p>
<p>How do you know the guy filing the law suit is not a Muslim? You do know that India has the largest Muslim population in the world, followed by countries such as Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Afghanistan etc and they are all considered Asians, right? Many people in the middle consider themselves colored/ Asians too. So, I do not see them disagreeing with this law suit.</p>
<p>The irony is that the Ivy League was comprised of a very one-dimensional group of students a generation or two ago…if they cannot select a diverse class they will potentially again be comprised of a one-dimensional group of kids. If lawsuits like this persist what goes around comes around.</p>
<p>I think people also forget that Harvard is a private college and can select the students they want to fill the demographics they want at their college. If it were the ONLY school in the country, that would be an issue, but it is not. I am sure there are plenty of 2.0 students around the nation that wouldn’t mind attending Harvard, should they drop their admissions standards just to be PC?</p>
<p>You want to know what group is really the most discriminated against in America? It’s easy. Just look in the mirror. You’ll probably be able to convince yourself.</p>
<p>This case, like Li’s case, will be investigated forever with no resolution.</p>
<p>Hunt has a good point. We are all victims. It is all so unfair!</p>
<p>Everyone can be classified as a member of any number of groups, including the standard ones of race, gender, ethnicity, socio-economic class, national origin, geographic origin (esp. if within the US), religion (or lack thereof), job (for adults, maybe school for those younger), and age, but also others involving interests (e.g., playing a particular sport or game or dedicated to a hobby), lifestyle (sexual or other), intelligence (mostly as assessed by standardized tests), educational background and success, and even markers of social attractiveness such as physical beauty, athletic ability, and height. And there are any number of other groups one could be classified as belonging to.</p>
<p>In many of these groupings, there is a generally recognized privileged group and a disadvantaged group. Virtually everyone belongs to some group that is privileged and some other group that is disadvantaged, at least from some perspective. One can build one’s self esteem by focusing on the membership in privileged groups, while one can try to take advantage of membership in disadvantaged groups by claiming foul and demanding compensation for the disadvantage. </p>
<p>Generally those who are more privileged than disadvantaged overall are best able to succeed in gaining compensation for being members of disadvantaged groups, because they usually have more sophistication and have more resources at their disposal to press their claims. For example, it is the elite student who has had a great many advantages who is often best able to pursue “justice” and succeed in achieving compensation for being “disadvantaged.”</p>