Discrimination in College Admissions: It’s Not What You Think

Harvard is being sued by the Justice Dept because of their discriminatory admissions policies against Asian-Americans (not international students).  Apparently Harvard restricted admission of Asian-Americans to 18 percent in 2013.  A Princeton study found that Asian-Americans need to score 140 points higher on the SAT to have the same chance of admission to private colleges and the Ivy League. 

History repeats itself — again.    

Back in the 1920s, when Jews were high-achieving minorities – just like the Asian-Americans today – Harvard, Yale, and Princeton changed admissions criteria from strictly grades and standardized test to considering leadership, volunteer work, and athletic prowess.  In doing so, this ensured that the Jewish admissions rates wouldn’t continue past 20% on this upward trend. These colleges needed to protect their legacies and aristocracies.

So Harvard, Yale, and Princeton were able to change the merit-based admissions policy to a quota system that would limit the number of Jews admitted each year.  Read the book ­The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton by Jerome Karabel to learn how elite colleges blatantly discriminated against women, Jews, blacks, and others.

Look at colleges that don’t ban students based on their ethnicities.  Asian-Americans made up 34.8% of the student body at the UCLA and 42.5% at Caltech in 2013.  Elite colleges are worried that if they removed the race factor from the admissions process, Asian-American admissions would rise, while white, black and Hispanic numbers would fall.

Sounds to me like admissions committees are making discriminatory policies about whom they are admitting.  Why can’t the best students be admitted based on their own merit?

[Sources]