Harvard Accused of Bias Against Asian-Americans

This doesn't surprise me, as an Asian American myself. I went to a high school that, while it wasn't the greatest in my county, routinely sent a student to Harvard every year - it was one of those schools that Harvard & other Ivy League schools tended to cherry-pick its minorities from (over 70% black/hispanic I was told the statistics were, in one of the wealthiest counties in the US).

I had extremely strong credentials overall - generally strong standardized testing scores (1250 on the SAT in 7th grade with a 740 Math/510 Verbal split, 800 on the SAT II Math 2C in 8th grade, 780 SAT II Biology, 780 SAT II Physics, 750 SAT II Chemistry, 750 SAT II Writing, 1450 on the regular SAT with a 750 Math/700 Verbal split), college math & physics credits while in high school (Calculus III/Multivariable Calculus, Linear Algebra, Differential Equations, etc.), lots of extracurriculars & achievements, and a recommendation from an Ivy League physics professor. However, I slipped up on my essay since I wasn't a good writer then (which clicked for me the summer before college strangely enough) - that slip up was all it took to get deferred rejection from schools like Harvard in a year where a lot of the private colleges were weakened by the Enron scandal & consequently took 3/4th of the normal enrollment.

On the flip side, in just the class before mine, there was a girl who had nowhere near my scores or achievements (in fact, I heard her SAT score was a 1320) who was accepted to Harvard - the kicker was that she was half latino.

At the time this happened, I was extremely angry/bitter - I ended up attending a public university, which ended up being a blessing in many ways. I ended up learning a lot in non-academic aspects, but a lot of that was from force of character as someone who pushes himself to break barriers and challenge himself to succeed on difficult situations. I still believe those schools made a bad mistake, but I've accepted that admission is not necessarily a merit based decision for these schools, and to concern myself with what I can control.

I think I'm inclined to agree.

I'm not even going to post this with my real account. I wonder if we'll even be able to have a discussion about this without me getting downvoted into oblivion.

Asians have the highest GPAs and SAT scores, followed by whites, followed by Hispanics, followed by blacks. As such, blacks are given the benefit of the doubt, where as Asians are judged more harshly.

Statistically, these groups have differing average IQs in the same order that I just described, with Asians at the top (actually Ashkenazi Jews at the top, followed by Asians) and blacks, sadly, at the bottom. This isn't to say a black individual can't have a high IQ or an Asian individual can't have a low IQ, just that on average they cluster around certain numbers, so a black with genius-level IQ is rarer than an Asian one.

Whether or not you believe IQ measures intelligence accurately or comprehensively, the fact is that it correlates strongly with academic performance and SAT scores. I also will concede that "race" has questionable biological validity, and it gets really fuzzy when one is the offspring of one or more "mixed-race" parents". Still, race/IQ statistics in all of their generalities are a source of existential depression for me. Most of the data is touted boldly by people I despise and used to bolster viewpoints that I find deplorable, but there seems to be at least some truth to it.

The idea of discriminating based on one's race seems unfair if we lived in a world where literally everyone has the same capacity to succeed but merely chooses not to. But what if that's not the case? If Asians generally can attain high test scores and high GPAs due to an innate advantage, could that mean the admissions standards should be stricter for them and more lax for other groups? The alternative is that certain groups completely dominate academia with ease, while other groups are barely represented at all -- which is probably already the case to a large extent.

I don't think there are any easy answers. Trouble arises with an Asian individual with a relatively "average" IQ faces the admissions process, and trouble arises because the black individuals who manage to get in have above-average IQs. Still, I support the idea of affirmative action for the reasons that I previously described.

Asians might have a harder time while other groups get a bit of a head start, but if you have a high IQ you will ultimately have the capacity to carve out a high-paying career in ways that someone with a relatively lower IQ never will.

I approve of affirmative action where it helps to redress an unfair societal imbalance, as it does here. I think it acts as a band-aid, as is commonly said, and I don't think it's an ideal solution to racial discrimination. But band-aids exist exactly because they contribute towards long-term improvement of a wound.

On that point, it's very hard for me to see how Asian-Americans have a societal advantage that needs redressing in the USA.

As I see it, Asian-Americans are being punished - not to admit more Afrian-Americans - but to keep European-American admissions higher.

If we say that African-Americans are benefiting from positive discrimination, we must be consistent and say that European-Americans are benefiting from positive discrimination.

I would expand your use of 'etc':

Harvard Accused of Bias Against Asian-Americans === Harvard Accused of Favoritism Towards European-Americans

> Naturally, many try to attack it to claw back more unearned white privilege for themselves.

Asians have white privilege now?

We can certainly see what your Officially Not Racist biases are.