[amarkov]

Being incidentally rejected might not be worth a lawsuit. But the plaintiffs claim, in part, that Harvard is specifically trying to discriminate against Asian applicants to keep Asians out of the student body. I think that's worth litigating over if it's true.

[gowld]

Astute readers will recall _100 years ago_ when Harvard had an issue with a glut of over-performing Jewish students, and had debates that presaged today's debates about discrimination and diversity. The old debate may even be more illuminating than today's debate, since back then many of the racists were shamelessly clear-spoken about their race-based hatred.

https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/expose/book/cloak-meritocrac...

[mc32]

This kind of thing also occurred in the USSR because the native Russians were underperforming, so many elite institutions had implicit quotas such that one might have answers struck down in qualifying exams for being “too right”.

It’s a hard political problem (both the discriminated against and the ones benefitting from the quota have a valid argument). Obvs an unbiased solution would be to admit the best, regardless, but for social reasons, it may not be optimal.

[Torgo]

I am certain that, unlike 100 years ago, the fear isn't that Asians are crowding out white males; but that they are crowding out other minority groups. That is an entirely different motivation than anti-Semitism.

[akhilcacharya]

>that Harvard is specifically trying to discriminate against Asian applicants to keep Asians out of the student body.

If this was truly the intention they are doing a very poor job of it. Class of 2021 is 22.2% Asian-American according to their website.