General Harvard University accused of bias against Asian-Americans

[tom_mai78101]

A complaint Friday alleged that Harvard University discriminates against Asian-American applicants by setting a higher bar for admissions than that faced by other groups.

The complaint, filed by a coalition of 64 organizations, says the university has set quotas to keep the numbers of Asian-American students significantly lower than the quality of their applications merits. It cites third-party academic research on the SAT exam showing that Asian-Americans have to score on average about 140 points higher than white students, 270 points higher than Hispanic students and 450 points higher than African-American students to equal their chances of gaining admission to Harvard. The exam is scored on a 2400-point scale.

The complaint was filed with the U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights.

“Many studies have indicated that Harvard University has been engaged in systemic and continuous discrimination against Asian-Americans during its very subjective ‘Holistic’ college admissions process,” the complaint alleges.

The coalition is seeking a federal investigation and is requesting Harvard “immediately cease and desist from using stereotypes, racial biases and other discriminatory means in evaluating Asian-American applicants.”

Robert Iuliano, Harvard’s general counsel, said the school’s admissions policies are “fully compliant with the law.” The school says its admissions process takes into account a variety of factors besides academics, including applicants’ extracurricular activities and leadership qualities.

Harvard Accused of Bias Against Asian-Americans

Harvard was hit by a complaint Friday alleging the university discriminates against Asian-American applicants by setting a higher bar for admissions than that faced by other groups.

www.wsj.com

 

[KMilz]

Maybe they should try being black, then.

 

[Wummi]

I really think if they set the same bar for the Asian Americans, then Harvard will be filled with Asian-Americans, no joke.

 

[KMilz]

Yeah, that's the problem. The Asian students are just upset that the workplace diversity laws are working as designed (albeit very poorly) instead of only hindering chances for white folk. In the past, these laws were the only thing helping them get jobs or a chance to go to a prestigious university. Now, in order to keep a proper ratio of different ethnically diverse individuals attending their school, they've got to turn the tables and start turning away more qualified Asian applicants. Double-edged blade, bitch.

 

[Wummi]

Yup, totally agreed.

 

[Slapshot136]

I think they should atleast set a timeline for phasing out these "Affirmative action" things, and be more open as to what else they care about when ranking students - it makes sense to not have the entire entry based only on a single test, and simply say - the test weights X%, and these students got in because they did Q Y and Z as well

Or better yet, simply not collect information about race during the sign-up phase: what's the point of it? they can get it as a statistic later if they need it, but really putting down "other" or "choose not to disclose" options seem to put one at a disadvantage already vs some of the other groups there

 

[FireCat]

Admission standards, should be the same for all applicants.

 

[Accname]

This really is an american thing only. There is no such thing as "race" over here. Nobody asks about it, nobody talks about it, it doesnt exist. Everybody is the same.

 

[KMilz]

God, everything sounds so boring over there. Where the hell are you from again?