How College Admissions Discriminates Against Asian Students
For years, onlookers claimed elite colleges were unfair to Asian American students. Then Harvard got sued. Suddenly, we got to see the numbers.
The lawsuit that eventually became Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard forced into public view an extraordinary amount of information about how one of America’s most selective universities actually chose its students.
Harvard produced applicant-level admissions data covering six admissions cycles, for the Classes of 2014 through 2019.
That meant researchers could compare tens of thousands of applicants across race, academics, extracurricular achievement, recommendations, interviews, admissions ratings, special preferences, and ultimate admissions decisions.
And the numbers revealed something extraordinary.
Asian Kids Are Exceptional
In the Harvard data examined during the litigation, Asian American applicants received stronger academic ratings than applicants from other major racial groups. They weren’t merely test-taking machines, either.
Asian applicants also performed extremely well in Harvard’s extracurricular rating. More than 28% of Asian American applicants received one of Harvard’s top two extracurricular ratings, compared with approximately:
- 25% of white applicants
- 17% of Hispanic applicants
- 16% of Black applicants
These weren’t kids with nothing except a 1600 and twelve AP classes. According to Harvard’s own ratings, Asian applicants were extraordinarily strong both academically and extracurricularly. Yet something wonky happened.
Harvard doesn’t just rate what you accomplished. It rates you.
Admissions officers assigned applicants a “personal rating” intended to capture qualities such as integrity, helpfulness, courage, kindness, empathy, self-confidence, leadership, maturity, and grit.
And this rating mattered enormously.
Evidence introduced in the litigation showed that fewer than 20% of applicants received one of the top two personal ratings, but those applicants accounted for nearly 80% of the students Harvard admitted.
Suddenly, the Asian advantage disappeared!
22.6% of white applicants received a personal rating of 1 or 2.
Black applicants were at 19.4%.
Hispanic applicants were at 19.1%.
For Asian American applicants, it was 18.0%.
So Asian applicants could outperform everyone academically and extracurricularly. But when Harvard’s admissions officers evaluated qualities like personality, leadership, courage, kindness, and likability? They came out at the bottom.
Then Something Even Stranger Happened
Harvard admissions officers weren’t the only people evaluating these students. Harvard also used alumni interviewers. They actually met the kids.
These alumni interviewers gave Asian American and white applicants top personal ratings at similar frequencies. So why did admissions counselors mark them down? I can’t tell you. But it’s one big discrepancy.
Then economists took Harvard’s actual admissions data and asked a simple question: If two applicants looked basically the same on paper, did being Asian appear to hurt one of them? Their answer was yes.
Duke economist Peter Arcidiacono and economists Josh Kinsler and Tyler Ransom estimated that, without the disadvantage they found associated with being Asian, Asian American applicants would have been admitted at a rate about 19% higher.
And remember that weird “personal rating,” where Asian applicants scored worse? That explained some of the gap.
But, the researchers concluded that lower personality scores hurt Asian applicants, but something else in Harvard’s admissions process appeared to be hurting them, too. (Harvard, of course, pushed back against this.)
It’s Not Just Harvard
Maybe we’re taking one of the strangest, most selective universities on Earth and pretending it represents elite college admissions everywhere. Except researchers have looked beyond Harvard.
Years before Harvard was sued, researchers at Princeton found evidence that the problem went beyond one school. They compared Asian American and white applicants with similar academic profiles and found that being Asian appeared to create an admissions disadvantage about as large as knocking 140 points off your SAT score.
That does NOT mean every Asian applicant literally needed a 1540 where a white applicant needed a 1400. The researchers did not have every component of the application, including some of the subjective information admissions officers considered, so the number shouldn’t be treated as a universal Asian SAT tax.
Then researchers got a much larger dataset.
In a 2024 study, researchers analyzed 685,709 applications from 292,795 Asian American and white students to 11 highly selective colleges. After comparing students with similar grades, test scores, and extracurriculars, they found that Asian American applicants had 28% lower odds of ultimately attending one of those schools than similarly qualified white applicants.
For South Asian applicants? 49% lower odds!
At some point, “maybe Harvard is just weird” stops being a satisfying explanation.
The researchers also found structural advantages that disproportionately benefited white applicants. One was legacy admissions. Another was geography: selective colleges appeared to disadvantage applicants from certain regions with large Asian populations.
Legacy preference doesn’t say “Asian.” Geographic preference doesn’t say “Asian.” Subjective personality evaluation doesn’t say “Asian.” But a policy doesn’t have to say “fewer Asians” to disproportionately hurt Asian kids.
So What Is an Asian Applicant Supposed to Do About This?
Please don't quit piano because it seems “Asian.” Do not hide the fact that your parents immigrated. Do not pretend your 1580 isn’t impressive.
But I think essays are especially important for Asian applicants. It’s a real way you can protect yourself. Your essays are your chance to make yourself much harder to stereotype.
Now, I’m not saying become “less Asian.” Become more you.
Be funny if you’re funny. Be argumentative if you’re argumentative. Be nerdy as hell if you’re nerdy as hell. Write about your culture if you have something loud to say about your culture.
I find it makes more sense to write something edgier than what is typical because it’s a way of actively protecting yourself from discrimination. No one can say you don’t have a great personality if you show a ton of it. But all South Asian and East Asian applicants should keep in mind that data shows elite colleges assume you’re too tame.
Have opinions, contradictions, and an individual voice. You don’t need a bigger personality. But let’s make sure the person reading your application can actually see the amazing one you already have.
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