Asian American Discrimination in Harvard Admissions [pdf]

I'm all for Asian Americans getting fair treatment. More broadly than this study, what bothers me about this story, is that by focusing so much on Harvard, it reinforces the hierarchy of educational institutions that we have. It does not challenge the underlying rot, which is the notion of prestige and status conferred to schools. We could all do without the snob-factor of our educational hierarchy. Alumni networking is a gross non-meritocratic thing as well.

Harvard, in particular, is a despicable place. Just now, during this shutdown, they've laid off some of their most vulnerable staff (food service workers, etc) to save money, when they have a $40bn endowment. Anyone with a sense of what is right should not apply there. Alumni should be ashamed.

I fully support this, Harvard has definitely committed some questionable acts recently. However, Ivy League schools in general are well known for their prestige, and they usually have a rather high quality of education in most subjects. Why should any one group of applicants be excluded from seeking out that opportunity?

The same systems are in place at most private schools; all of them have affirmative action, holistic review, and control who gets in with their final say. Even public universities have this issue, look at gender-based admissions in CS for example.

> Why should any one group of applicants be excluded from seeking out that opportunity?

They shouldn't. If I seemed to imply that above, then I didn't articulate my point well.

Going to Harvard, etc. is not about getting the best education (public schools like the University of California system are great), it's about acquiring prestige. It's about the connections and networking to ascend to the highest levels of society. The flaw being that such networking is important, as opposed to more meaningful forms of achievement.