Harvard University has been sued over its racially discriminative selections process, a case which could be reviewed before the Supreme Court. Plaintiffs in the case contend Harvard gives lower personality scores to Asian Americans, which weigh down their applications despite high academic achievement.
Only 17.6% of Asians receive top scores of 1 or 2 when it comes to their personal ratings, compared to 21.3% of White applicants. Asians score the lowest of any ethnic group at Harvard when it comes to this score constantly getting pinged on traits such as “courage,” “leadership” and “likability.”
The Princeton Review has recommended Asian applicants stop saying they want to be doctors, or major in math or science, so they don’t appear “too Asian” and drag down their likability ratings.
eye on the news
Test Anxiety Asian-American parents mobilized to oppose the de Blasio administration’s specialized high school proposal. Now they’re fighting a larger battle.
Education
New York
On February 26, when former New York City schools chancellor Richard Carranza announced his resignation, the Asian-American parent groups who had been calling for his ouster for more than 18 months were wary celebrants. Carranza’s departure was a measure of vindication for these parents, who want the city to retain its current selective admissions systems for gifted children and for teenagers seeking entry into top public high schools. Carranza was determined to reduce what he called segregation in city schools and to create more opportunities for black and Hispanic students an effort, the parents understood, that would come at the expense of Asian-American students who worked hard to do well under the current system. Even before the surge in attacks against Asians
Learning
Efforts to change selective admissions policies fuel parent activism Min
Lee Cheng graduated from San Francisco’s Lowell High School in 1985. He counts himself one of the lucky ones. Lowell High, which was the only local public school specifically for high-performing students, had a strict racial-quota admissions policy when he applied. No racial or ethnic group could comprise more than 40 percent of the school’s student body. The rule was aimed at desegregating the district, but even as a teenager, Cheng found it unfair. It meant that Asian students had to score higher on the entrance exam than white students, who in turn had to score higher on the exam than Black and Hispanic applicants. Cheng’s friend his orchestra partner was not admitted, though if he had been of a different race he might have earned a seat. The boy’s parents were poor immigrants his father a waiter and his mother a seamstress. “He would have gotten in, but for being Chine