The Statistics
In 2021, there was a 40:14 ratio of white students to Asian American students at Harvard University [1]. Everyone knows how difficult it is to be admitted into Harvard, but should the gap separating white and Asian American students be that large? Students for Fair Admissions thought otherwise and have sued Harvard. An upcoming Supreme Court case will debate this matter.
Asian American students tend to outperform other students in grades, extracurriculars, and test scores [2]. Though the SAT and ACT have their flaws, they play a major role in the admission process by providing an objective measure of education, unlike the various educational experiences and inflated grade point averages of students. From 2000 to 2015, Harvard had about 9,000 white applicants and 4,600 Asian American applicants on average. Yet, Asian American applicants had the lowest acceptance rate, even with their discernibly higher SAT scores [3].
In a past case, Judge Allison Burroughs conceded that “Asian American applicants would likely be admitted at a higher rate than white applicants if admissions decisions were made based solely on academic and extracurricular ratings” [4]. A 2013 study found that if admissions were based solely on academic performance, the Asian population at Harvard would rise from 19 percent to 43 percent [5]. In fact, Harvard’s entering class was compared to the class of California Institute of Technology, a school that does not consider race in admissions. Harvard had 18 percent Asian-American enrollment, while Caltech had 43 percent [3].
The Admissions Process
Like most elite colleges, Harvard uses ‘holistic’ admissions, which looks at a variety of factors when considering applicants rather than solely objective criteria. The five categories considered are academic, extracurricular, athletic, personal, and overall [2]. According to Harvard, Asian American applicants have systematically scored worse on personality than any other group. In other words, measures of “likability, courage, kindness and being ‘widely respected’’ weighed down Asian American applicants’ admission rate [4]. In a past court case, Duke economist Peter Arcidiacono testified that ‘removing the personal score penalty of Asian applicants would result in a 16% increase in the number of admitted Asian Americans’ [5].
Recently, Harvard admitted that they were imposing “racial balancing,” which keeps the numbers of Asian-Americans low, while less academically qualified white, black and Hispanic applicants are considered [5]. Despite scoring highest in all objective measures, Harvard has been holding Asian applicants to a higher standard, thus lowering their admission rate.
White Privilege
From 2009 to 2014, it was found that 43 percent of white students at Harvard were athletes, legacies, or children of donors or faculty [4]. A study concluded that without these admissions advantages, only a quarter of those students would have been accepted [2]. African American, Asian American and Hispanic students combined make up less than 16 percent of these groups [4].
Too many white applicants are accepted for non-academic reasons. Recommendation letters and personal essays contribute to their higher personality scores, which have been found to be biased. According to Duke economist Peter Arcidiacono, alumni interviewers give Asian American applicants personality scores similar to those of white applicants, but the admissions office gives them the worst scores out of any other group [7].
Socioeconomic status has also played a role in the admittance of primarily white applicants, as seen during the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal. Through excessive donations and paid test-takers, private equity investor John Wilson and lawyer Elisabeth Kimmel are both examples of white parents who paid their children’s way into Harvard [6].
[8]
Harvard’s commitment to diversity has been overshadowed by the financial interests of the university. And because of the benefits of alumni donations and a wealthy student body, primarily white legacy students are favored in the admissions process. As a result of this non-meritocratic approach to admissions, Asian Americans students suffer. Policies such as affirmative action must play a larger role in the admissions process in order to form the strongest class. A world class university should have the most intellectually achieving class, not the most personable and wealthy class.
Works Cited
Avi-Yonah, Shera. 2018. “Asian-American Harvard Admits Earned Highest Average SAT Score of Any Racial Group from 1995 to 2013: News: The Harvard Crimson.” News | The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved March 30, 2022 (https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2018/10/22/asian-american-admit-sat-scores/).
Chait, Jonathan. 2022. “The Left Is Gaslighting Asian Americans About College Admissions.” Intelligencer. Retrieved April 2, 2022 (https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/02/the-left-is-gaslighting-asian-americans-on-school-admissions.html).
Espenshade, Thomas. 2004. “Admission Preferences for Minority Students, Athletes, and Legacies at Elite Universities.” ProQuest. Retrieved March 30, 2022 (https://www.proquest.com/socabs/docview/204358660/9F08524310E54411PQ/6?accountid=11264).
Hartocollis, Anemona. 2018. “Harvard Rated Asian-American Applicants Lower on Personality Traits, Suit Says.” The New York Times. Retrieved April 14, 2022 (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/15/us/harvard-asian-enrollment-applicants.html).
Jaschik, Scott. 2017. “A Look at the Data and Arguments about Asian-Americans and Admissions at Elite Colleges.” Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved April 3, 2022 (https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2017/08/07/look-data-and-arguments-about-asian-americans-and-admissions-elite).
Takagi, Dana. 1990. “From Discrimination to Affirmative Action: Facts in the Asian American Admissions Controversy.” ProQuest. Retrieved April 3, 2022 (https://www.proquest.com/socabs/docview/61259285/9F08524310E54411PQ/9?accountid=11264).
Weissmann, Jordan. 2019. “43 Percent of White Students Harvard Admits Are Legacies, Jocks, or the Kids of Donors and Faculty.” Slate Magazine. Retrieved March 3, 2022 (https://slate.com/business/2019/09/harvard-admissions-affirmative-action-white-students-legacy-athletes-donors.html).
Footnotes
[0] This GIF of the Harvard logo represents how dominant the white population at Harvard is even under affirmative action policies.
[1] (Takagi 1990)
[2] (Espenshade 2004)
[3] (Jaschik 2017)
[4] (Weissmann 2019)
[5] (Chait 2022)
[6] (Avi-Yonah 2018)
[7] (Hartocollis 2018)
[8] https://college.harvard.edu/life-at-harvard/diversity-inclusion
[9] https://diversity.caltech.edu/
