The argument that the preference given to legacies and athletes (disproportionately white) is the reason for the “ceiling” on asian american admits is a red herring. In the last 20 years, the percentage of white students has not budged at Harvard & Yale, while the percentage of whites in the US population has steadily declined.
White admits as percentage of domestic admits:
** School | 2006 | 2008 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | change from 2006 to 2013 **
Harv | 48.5% || 45.5% || 48.9% || 50.5% || not av || 48.6% || ← 100% change
Yale | 53.2% || 38.5% || 55.1% || 50.6% || 49.4% || 53.8% || ← 101% change
Chart of historical US racial percentage trend
http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/files/2013/05/Screen-Shot-2013-05-07-at-7.33.46-PM.png
