Discover Yahoo! With Your Friends

Explore news, videos, and much more based on what your friends are reading and watching. Publish your own activity and retain full control.

To get started, first

YOUR FRIENDS' ACTIVITY

    Indian-American student triggers Harvard probe

    By Indo Asian News Service | IANS India Private Limited – Fri 3 Feb, 2012

    Washington, Feb 3 (IANS) A complaint from an Indian-American student who was near the top of his high school class but was rejected by both Harvard and Princeton universities has triggered an investigation by the US Education Department.

    The unnamed Indian-American student in California complained that the two universities discriminate against Asian-Americans in undergraduate admissions, according to a media Bloomberg report.

    According to the Education Department's Office of Civil Rights the complaint was received Aug 22 and the allegations "accepted for investigation" Jan 11.

    The complaint alleges "discrimination against Asian-Americans on the basis of race/national origin with respect to the university's admissions process."

    A Harvard spokesman was cited as saying the institution does not discriminate. Asian-Americans make up 16 percent of Harvard undergraduates.

    But Bloomberg said there's plenty of research to suggest that Asian-American applicants must bring higher test scores and GPAs than whites, Hispanics or Blacks to gain entry.

    The report cites a 2011 study of admissions at Duke: Asian-American enrolees scored 1457 on the reading and math sections of the SAT, compared to 1416 for whites, 1347 for Hispanics and 1275 for Blacks.

    Princeton in New Jersey also asserted that it doesn't discriminate on the basis of race or national origin and and will provide the government with the requested information.

    The proportion of Asian-Americans among Princeton undergraduates increased to 17.7 percent this year from 14.1 percent in 2007- 2008, a spokesman was quoted as saying.

    The rise reflects the tendency of incoming classes to "fluctuate based on the assessment of individual applications" rather than the impact of the federal review, he said.

    There are 14.7 million Americans of Asian descent only, plus 2.6 million who are multiracial including Asian, according to the 2010 US census.

    We apologize. An error has occurred. Please try again.
     

    21 comments

    • anonymous
      anonymous  •  3 months ago
      ivy-league american universities tend reject asian students, because they're typically smarter, hard-working and more capable than white students. those universities don't have to reject black, latinos & etc. because there are less applications from those races overall.
      • Gopal
        Gopal 3 months ago
        You're flying on the high horse. Maybe you should consider the fact that Harvard and Princeton are the BEST UNIVERSITIES in the world and accept the BRIGHTEST MINDS from all over the globe. Stop whining like a 2 year old. If you do a good job and show your merit, no university in the world will reject you.
    • y!a user
      y!a user  •  1 month 24 days ago
      A lot of the top Ivy League schools have a funny way of accepting people. One time I was watching Oprah and there was a 18 year old woman who got into schools like Harvard and Yale. Normally I wouldn't think anything of it, but I really honestly think that she only got in because she was born in Rwanda and her essay was about how she was coping after finding out that her relatives were killed in the Rwandan Genocide. But if you listened to the way she spoke, it was hard to understand her at times, her grammar wasn't good at all (she read a part of her essay) and she even said her SAT scores weren't that great.
      But I know a lot of people born here in the States who scored near perfect on the SAT, who were at the top of their classes, who had loads of extra curricular activities, had a lot of volunteer hours, etc. and they were rejected. So sometimes schools weigh "experience" a lot more over grades even though we can't help that.
    • NikkoA
      NikkoA  •  Arcadia, United States  •  2 months ago
      Ok for real, it's not a racism thing it's just that asians tend to have only academic shit on their applications when there is a lot more to getting into a good college then that. Lots of Asians and Indians get into Ivy League schools anyway. Should the brilliant athletes and club leaders and hard-working volunteers be judged only by their SAT scores?
    • MUNCHUN
      MUNCHUN  •  Pune, Maharashtra  •  3 months ago
      what nonsense, there are thousands of schools and every school has a topper. should harvard give admission to everyone of them?
      • poosha
        poosha 3 months ago
        It should give admission to the best of the best.A white or a Black or a Hispanic who has lower grades gets admission while an Asian who has higher grades is shown the the door.That is the problem here.First understand what the problem is all about .and then do the talking.
      • Gopal
        Gopal 3 months ago
        My point exactly MUNCHUN CHEERS!!!!!!
      • Gopal
        Gopal 3 months ago
        The problem Poosha is that while the SATs on an average show that trend, in real the application consists of a lot of other stuff, of which the SATs are a small part. On an average, the essays, activities and abilities of blacks and others is better than asian students because their head is not full of half-knowledge based thoughts. MUNCHUN has understood the situation far better than you ( sorry).
    • gautam
      gautam  •  Washington, United States  •  3 months ago
      No money No Honey.. friends... C.M (Nara Chandrababu Naidu) he know how to deal with Harvard.Because his son got admission in Harvard But he failed in his +2.Money and influence is main thing to get in......
    • D
      D  •  1 month 24 days ago
      To all the people saying "They need athletes and musicians too!" to explain away the dramatic difference in SAT scores: go on youtube and see a 12 year old Asian do anything better than you can.
    • dhiraj
      dhiraj  •  Singapore, Singapore  •  3 months ago
      One thing I personally experienced that the Asians specially Indians needs to have really high qualifying scores and other achievements, compared to other nationals in order to get into any foreign universities.
      • Kirti
        Kirti 3 months ago
        that's true
    • Shyam
      Shyam  •  New Delhi, Delhi  •  3 months ago
      Harvard,Princeton,MIT,Stanford,UCLA,Oxford,Cambridge,IIT's,IISc....... is 4 all. No boundries at all.
    • NikkoA
      NikkoA  •  Arcadia, United States  •  2 months ago
      oh ya forgot about musicians
    • N
      N  •  3 months ago
      No one likes Indian
      • rams
        rams 3 months ago
        _|_ u!!!
      • T J
        T J 3 months ago
        ur mother does
      • poosha
        poosha 3 months ago
        The whole world likes Indian.Indian movies,Indian food,Indian culture,Indian history...the list is quite long.It is natural that losers like NFL feel jealous.
    • Indian
      Indian  •  3 months ago
      Yeah, its quite common over here. Glad someone stood up for it ! Thanks Dude :)
    • nitta
      nitta  •  Douala, Cameroon  •  3 months ago
      my daughter a VALEDICTORIAN, asian , too was rejected from HARVARD and few more ?
      i think the allegation makes sense , it could be true .
      • Mayank
        Mayank 3 months ago
        Dear ma'am you know the international universities prefers diversities over the entire class being Valedicotrians :)
        An asian will compete with the pool of asian candidates only as they have to maintain the proportion of international mix & this is why Harvard is different from IIM as they prefer overall profile (Simply being a Valedictorians wont do). Maybe if your daughter is a valedictorian she would have got admission to IIM Ahmedabad very easily because in Harvard the peers are not interested how someone scored 100 percent in their academics by they are more interested to be a successful businessman learning from peers.
        In India its a belief that a child scoring 100 percent are the best but its only in India whereas the outside university gives weightage to social work more.
        So cheer up Harvard must have taken an intelligent decision as they produce real managers
      • Gopal
        Gopal 3 months ago
        Nitta, please dont take this personally- YOU ARE WRONG!!! Mayank has explained the situation quite well. May I just add that having such a high opinion in one's capabilities is not a good trait to pass on. How did your daughter take the rejection _ cry and ask the universities why, after being a topper she had been rejected? Ask her to grow up please. Cheers. Sorry if I offended you but I want to give you an accurate description of your present situation.
    • Shyam
      Shyam  •  New Delhi, Delhi  •  3 months ago
      Well well well. After the economic turmoil & the rise of asian giants such as India & China, the panic has striked to the spines of the US .Actually this beautiful country(infact any country) can't be
      run by the whites alone.The world does not belong to the US,UK,China,India alone.Don't act like Talibans.We need each other.Give equal chance to all .Specially to the deserving ,irrespective of their colour,caste,creed,religion&nationality.I deeply respect some of the great american indivisuals in terms of their contribution to the world by their innovative & original works.Think about the Wright Brothers,Walt Disney,Abraham Lincoln,Henry Ford,Steven Jobs,Bill Gates & now the little boy Mark Zuckerberg.Similarly can you deny the contribution of Mahatma Gandhi & Albert Einstein??? We are all world citizens. LOVE & RESPECT ALL.
      don't Talibnise the world for heavens shake.
    • Aseem
      Aseem  •  3 months ago
      Two years ago, my friend was denied a house for rent in Hyderabad because the house owner was Brahmin and he told my friend point blank that he would only let his house to Brahmin. Now this Brahmin was not an old-man. He was a senior IT pro in San Jose. Ironically, only one day before, this Brahmin guy spoke about racism in US and how because of his Indian roots, he was passed over for promotion by a less competent White. That is NRIs for you. Cry about racism abroad and practice same at home in India. Hypocrites!
    • Arnas Shady
      Arnas Shady  •  Lansing, United States  •  3 months ago
      Hmm.. do people realize that the student body in universities is also made-up of a pool of athletes, artists and musicians? SAT scores really do not matter a great deal for such departments, and you can imagine why average SAT scores are skewed for different races. Jeez.. instead looking for lame excuses people should learn to accept failure and move on!
    • Gopal
      Gopal  •  3 months ago
      Be slightly sensible. Harvard and Princeton receive applications from all over the globe. One student living in a pipe dream of being the topper in a school can't be expected to be a sure choice for the best universities of the world. Although I am also an Indian, I am sure that there is no prejudice. Look up the following if you want to:
      Harvard and Princeton admission rates are 1%-2%
      Sharada, You want that asians should be considered just as smart as others and not more. But then what makes us the best choices for best universities in the world. My only worry is now that this student has started this nonsense, the universities might not actually become spiteful and reject me. ( Because I am the best and a topper at my school also LOL.) You fellows have got to realise that maybe there are other people who have peformed better than you. Cheers for reading this whole stuff!!!!!!!!
    • sharada
      sharada  •  3 months ago
      why is that asian should score the highest why not this rule apply for americans,africans or Hispanics...does it mean everybody accept only asians have the ability and rest are dumb compared to them??
    • Rufus
      Rufus  •  3 months ago
      India is the most racist country on the face of the planet with it's caste system. They cry racism when they go abroad but within the country they have absolutely no consideration for fellow countrymen. Also you can't buy your way to a seat abroad unlike here in India where influence and bribing gets you in. So Indian American student piss off.
    • Farwa R
      Farwa R  •  Chicago, United States  •  1 month 24 days ago
      I dont understand what everyone is getting so worked up about. Intelligence is an inherited trait and people of Asian origin are often times much smarter than some of their peers. This doesnt mean Asian Americans are the smartest but when accepting students into competitive school like Harvard, Princeton, Standford, and Yale, the schools also have to look at students' extracurricular activities, community service, leadership roles, etc. A student is completely useless if all they do is get good grades because all these competitive school are looking for students that are well-rounded regardless of what race they are. And the reason the SAT score bar is set higher for Asian Americans as opposed to people of other racial backgrounds is because they have to set it high enough so that they know a majority of the people of that race dont have those scores. That doesnt mean theyre being biased, theyre just trying to find the best of the best from each group of people.
    • Stephanie
      Stephanie  •  Culpeper, United States  •  1 month 24 days ago
      Well, for the record, my WHITE son who was at the top of his class, had perfect SAT scores and stellar community service records, was also not accepted at two Ivy League schools. An Asian American and an African American who were way below him in his class and had abysmal SAT scores were accepted at Ivy League schools. That, my friend, is discrimination.
     Post a comment