Word: quota
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...would like to commend Spencer Hsu for his February 11 editorial on Asian-American admissions. As Hsu astutely observes, it is unrealistic to attribute the disparity between white and Asian-American admissions rates to a deliberate, systematic quota system. Those who look for such a system are not only wasting their time but also draw attention away from the real, subtle problems of discrimination inherent in our universities and other aspects of our society. Such persons make the same faulty and dangerous assumptions as do Harvard University and persons like William Pao, who believe that the absence of specifically anti...
...February 11, 1988) is an emotional outburst that is based upon ill-founded premises and which proposes an illogical solution. Hsu concludes that because admission rates for Asian-Americans are less than that of their white peers, Harvard is guilty of racial discrimination. Although he admits Harvard has no quota system, Hsu claims that Harvard's standard for admission places the "average" Asian-American applicant at a disadvantage, and thus, indirectly practices racial discrimination. Hsu demands that Harvard eliminate this difference in acceptance rates; if this means developing a new set of admission criterion that would favor the "average" Asian...
Certainly, Harvard discriminates. Every year, thousands of applicants are denied admission. However, the important question is whether Harvard's standards for admission unduly places Asian-Americans at a disadvantage. The admissions office has assured us that Harvard has no quota system and Hsu himself agrees to this fact. As for participating in extracurricular activities, there is no reason why Asian-American high school students are at a disadvantage to their peers...
...surface, it may look as if the Admissions Office sets a quota on the number of Asian-Americans annually admitted to the College. After all, statistics reveal that during the last 10 years. Asian Americans have typically scored 20 points or more than other applicant groups on SATs and other standardized tests. Studies also show that the number of college-age Asian-American applicants has increased every year during the last decade. With an expanding pool of highly qualified candidates, the number of Asian-Americans accepted should show a parallel rise. And yet, the percentage of Asian-Americans at Harvard...
...final tally, these biases do not add up to a quota. The percentage of Asian Americans per class has risen from 4.8 to 12.2 in the last decade--a testament to the effort of the present Admissions Committee to create a diverse student body. In the future, if the number of children of Asian-American alumni increases (which is now inevitable) without a parallel rise in acceptances, then Asian-Americans will have cause to worry. But for the present moment, there is no concrete evidence to assert the existence of a quota...