The plaintiffs in the ongoing trial over discriminatory practices at Harvard University believe that new evidence proves that the institution discriminates against Asian-American applicants.
According to a report from Slate.com, lawyers offered evidence that they believe proves that Harvard engages in discrimination against Asian-American applicants. The trial, which began on Monday, is likely to have a major impact on the legality of using race as a factor in the college admissions process.
According to the plaintiffs, the practice of discrimination actually takes place prior to a student’s decision to apply to Harvard. Like other schools, Harvard invites students to apply based on their score on a standardized test called the PSAT, which is taken by high schoolers to indicate how they might perform on the SAT. According to internal Harvard documents presented at the trial, the university would only send an invitation to Asian students if they scored higher than their white counterparts.
The documents specified the score that would be required before a student would be invited to apply. Harvard would send an application invitation to any white student who scored 1310 on the PSAT or higher. They would send an invite to any Asian female who score 1350 or higher. And they would only send an invite to Asian males who scored 1380 or higher.
When questioned about this practice during the trial, Harvard’s Dean of Admissions William Fitzsimmons spoke in clichès about the importance of cultivating “diversity” on campus.
Additional evidence from the trial revealed that alleged discrimination in the Harvard admissions office goes far beyond the application invitations. According to internal statistics, Asian-Americans would make up 43 percent of the Harvard class if the only admissions metric were academic scores. For the admissions year in question, the admitted class was only 19 percent Asian-American.
Of course, grades and test scores are not the only metrics for university admission, nor should they be. It is, however, important to note the impact that the holistic admissions review process has on a student who is otherwise academically qualified for admission into a university.
Breitbart News will continue to cover the Harvard discrimination case proceedings for more updates.
If Harvard admitted students based solely on the applicant scoring in the top decile of an “academic index” (=test scores + HS performance), the racial/ethnic composition of its freshman class would be expected to change as follows:
White -6%
Black -94%
Hispanic -82%
Asian +108% pic.twitter.com/goSlpHpRaf— Timofey Pnin (@pnin1957) October 15, 2018
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