Harvard Bars The Door To Many Asians Who'd Get In If They Were Black Or White
An editorial in the WSJ covers Harvard's racial disparities in admissions -- how Asian-American admissions levels seem to reflect "evidence of de facto admissions quotas that the High Court has explicitly declared illegal":
Harvard denies wrongdoing and has long said the university takes a "holistic" view of every applicant, which presumably includes whether an 18-year-old plays football or the piccolo.
The background:
In 2015 a coalition of more than 60 Asian-American groups filed a complaint with the Justice Department Civil Rights Division that alleges admissions discrimination at Harvard University, and the details are striking. In 1993 about 20% of Harvard students were Asian-American, and that figure has barely budged over two decades, even as the Asian-American share of the U.S. population has grown rapidly. Harvard's admitted class of 2021 is 22% Asian-American, according to data on the university's website, and the numbers are roughly consistent at Princeton, Yale and other Ivy League schools.Compare that with California, where a 1990s referendum banned the state's public universities from considering race as an admissions factor. The share at University of California campuses at Berkeley and Los Angeles tops 30%, as the complaint notes. At the private California Institute of Technology, which by choice does not consider race as a factor, more than 40% of students were Asian-American in 2013, up from 26% in 1993.
Also notable is research on how much more competitive Asian-Americans must be to win entry into Harvard or other hallowed progressive halls. All else being equal, an Asian-American must score 140 points higher on the SAT than a white counterpart, 270 points higher than a Hispanic student, and 450 points higher than a black applicant, according to 2009 research from Princeton sociologist Thomas Espenshade and co-author Alexandria Walton Radford.
I think this is just rotten.
Should we let the entire Harvard student body be Asian?
My answer: Hell yes, if they have the scores and all to get in.
Or to put this another way -- if they'd get in if Harvard didn't know they are Asian.
A "holistic" view of every applicant?
If getting into Harvard is no longer based on academic ability, on what is admission based?
If Harvard is no longer inviting those who excel academically, whom are they inviting?
And what will this do to Harvard University? What do they imagine these "students" will be doing once they are admitted. After all, if academics is no longer your priority in admittance, it cannot be your priority in matriculation of students, if students Harvard's attendees are still to be considered.
Conan the Grammarian at August 7, 2017 4:46 AM
Don't kid yourself Conan. There have always been two general standards for admission to Harvard.
1. Do you have a relative who was admitted to Harvard.
2. High academic success.
There are a lot of people who make it into Harvard who are not that bright. And once you are in failing is really hard. They like having a high fence to keep people out but once you get over that fence they really don't want to kick you out.
Ben at August 7, 2017 5:46 AM
"A 'holistic' view of every applicant?"
"Holistic" admissions appeared within minutes of the first court decisions banning reverse discrimination in college admissions in the 1990s. Admissions officers consider it their get-out-of-jail-free card. It's "I take into account unquantifiable factors to achieve the result I want", which is racial quotas. Admissions offices think they can't get sued by doing it this way, since the admissions officer's inner state of mind can't really be challenged in court. However, if the goal is still to achieve a racial quota, which it appears to be from the numbers cited, then I think their own cannon is about to turn on them.
Cousin Dave at August 7, 2017 6:40 AM
Wow. Harvard giving Asians the Jewish treatment. I'm shocked (not). I hope their Civil Rights complaint gets pushed by the Dept. of Justice.
ferdburful at August 7, 2017 12:09 PM
In high school we did not have a literary magazine so my friends and I started one. We immediately realized that we ourselves would be submitting much of the work and we could not be objective, so we instituted double-blind reviewing. Pretty sophisticated for teens, I think.
Race-specific admissions are counter to everything this country is about. First the Ivy League kept the jews and blacks out and now they keep the asians out. But they hold themselves up as paragons of virtue. huh
cc at August 7, 2017 12:38 PM
What we need to do is to worry a whole lot less about Harvard and similar institutions and stop treating them as if they have a secret magic ingredient in the educations they provide.
50 years ago, Peter Drucker remarked that one of the main advantages America had over Europe is that we did not have separate 'schools for leaders' and 'schools for followers.'
"One thing it (modern society) cannot afford in education is the “elite institution” which has a monopoly on social standing, on prestige, and on the command positions in society and economy. Oxford and Cambridge are important reasons for the English brain drain. A main reason for the technology gap is the Grande Ecole such as the Ecole Polytechnique or the Ecole Normale. These elite institutions may do a magnificent job of education, but only their graduates normally get into the command positions. Only their faculties “matter.” This restricts and impoverishes the whole society…The Harvard Law School might like to be a Grande Ecole and to claim for its graduates a preferential position. But American society has never been willing to accept this claim…"
We as a country are a lot closer to accepting Grande Ecole status for Harvard Law School and similar institutions than we were when Drucker wrote the above.
David Foster at August 7, 2017 2:17 PM
"One thing it (modern society) cannot afford in education is the “elite institution” which has a monopoly on social standing, on prestige, and on the command positions in society and economy.
I remember reading an autobiography of an engineer/author who had moved to the States for professional reasons. The way that he put it was that back in Britain if he suggested something, people wanted to know where he'd gone to school, in the States if he suggested something, people wanted to know how it would work.
kenmce at August 7, 2017 2:57 PM
As is well known, Asians are entirely lacking in holistics.
Richard Aubrey at August 8, 2017 3:59 AM
It's enough to make a conservative out of you.
Chester White at August 8, 2017 9:47 AM
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