[paulhauggis]

"Asian-Americans (including Chinese-Americans) have to have better grades and test scores to have the same chance as your average white American "

It's because Asian-Americans statistically score much higher than white Americans so the competition is fierce.

If you check the "Asian" box when you take the SATs, you actually get points deducted from your overall score.

I'm not sure what started it, but the vicious cycle of over-achieving continues to make it so they need to get extremely high scores to be accepted to many ivy-league universities.

On top of this, most universities in the US have student quotas based on ethnicity, instead of basing admission on merit.

[swframe]

As for perfect SAT test scores equating to a right to get into Harvard... It is pretty clear that SAT scores are not always indicative of merit. When I was a Harvard senior I tutored another Harvard senior in high school algebra. She mentioned she got a perfect SAT score because her elite high school had a really good test prep program. There are many stories of people paying others to take the test, or people taking the test and sharing the questions with others, or people spending a lot of money or time to get a good score. In a way, that high score doesn't show that some students are more worthy to get in as much as it shows that affirmative action students need more affirmative action if the cycle of poverty is to be broken.