~ Paul Ziegler
Anyone who has gone through the college admissions process knows that race plays an incredibly important part into whether or not a person should be accepted. The race factor exists to ensure schools stay compliant with affirmative action laws. It is undeniable that affirmative action has worked in allowing underprivileged minority groups to gain a college education. Affirmative action is a good thing, as many of these minority groups are entrapped in underfunded and under-performing schools. These laws help bridge a gap that has existed for the entirety of the countries history. What is unfortunate evident is that elite schools take advantage of these laws. They seem to be empowered by them to continue to racially discriminate. Ivy league institutions like Harvard routinely deny Asian students who achieve the same if not higher academic qualifications than their white counterparts.
A group of Asian students actually sued Harvard for racial discrimination. A federal judge shot down their case on a base that even though there was a clear relationship between Asian students and lower admission, they could not prove any racial hostility by the school.
Harvard uses a system of personal ratings along with academic performance to determine who gets in and who gets denied. Harvard claims that Asian Americans are denied at higher rates because they do not meet the preferred personal ratings at a higher rate. The federal judge did not look any further into what exactly these personal ratings or qualities were. What are personal ratings and qualities though?
Harvard says that personal ratings are personality qualities or character traits that show a student’s level of courage and likability. What the school is saying, is that Asian Americans are statistically less courageous and less likable than their white counterparts. It seems that this shows clear bias for white students, and students of other minority groups. It is not possible to judge a persons courage or likability on any non-objective tangible quantitative level.
Personal rating is a loosely defined metric in the admissions process. What is not loosely defined is the statistic that Asian Americans are by far the highest performing group of applicants, yet they are accepted at the lowest rate. Even though Harvard was the defendant in federal lawsuits, there is evidence of Asian discrimination across the entire Ivy league. There is even a Wikipedia article on the so called Asian Quota. Quantifiable negative relationships exist between high performing Asian students and low admissions rates at other elite institutions such as Princeton, Yale and even the University of California system.
These negative relationships are disturbing, as it shows that elite colleges prefer to focus on vague personality assessments and personal ratings over raw academic talent. Though affirmative action is a great tool to help disadvantaged minorities out of tough conditions, it seems like elite colleges are taking advantage of it to keep other minority groups down.
Citation:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/15/harvard-discrimination-case-personal-rating-system
English 802 Spring 2020 