Feb 15 2012
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“ For starters, Harvard recruits athletes who are disproportionately white (it’s not just football and basketball—there are fencing and golf teams). Harvard also gives a bonus to the children of alumni, another disproportionately non-Asian group. But then on top of that Harvard seeks to ensure the presence of a diverse class by giving bonuses to members of underrepresented racial minorities and underrepresented geographical areas. The much-discussed racial diversity criteria hurt Asian applicants and benefit black and Latino applicants, while the never-discussed geographical diversity criteria hurt Asian applicants and benefit whites. Conservatives have entrenched into law the idea that policies with a “disproportionate impact” on racial minorities don’t constitute an illegal form of discrimination, which may be the wise approach, in which case it may be that Ivy League schools aren’t doing anything illegal to Asian applicants. But it’s clear enough that the structure of their admissions policies has the effect of disadvantaging Asian applicants.
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So this is pretty dismal.
Incidentally, wondering why Harvard has “geographical diversity” quotas (which seem pretty suspect at first glance)? They’re a holdover from a compromise in the 1920s to limit the number of Jewish students at top American universities, because the elderly WASP guys running things wanted to spare their delicate WASP grandchildren from the troubling presence of ethnic minorities on campus. And now the same policy is being used to limit the number of Asian students. Not cool.
(Source: Slate)
