A team of university economists said Harvard University’s Asian American applicants in the top one percent academically get worse “personal” ratings from the school than white applicants in the upper 50 percent.
Five economists, from Brown University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of New South Wales, John Hopkins University, and the California Institute of Technology made the assertion in an amicus brief filed on behalf of Students for Fair Admissions, the group suing Harvard, reported The College Fix.
“Asian-American applicants in the top academic decile are less likely to receive a high personal-rating score than white applicants in the top 50 [percent],” the economists stated. “This remarkable racial disparity does not appear in the personal ratings given by alumni who actually interview applicants.”
Harvard only admits applicants who achieve at least the second-highest rating with regard to both academics and personality. (RELATED: Asian Students 250 Percent Underrepresented At Harvard When Compared To School Without Race-Based Admissions)
“Inexplicably, the most academically competitive Asian Americans do much worse in Harvard’s personal-rating score than do academically similar applicants of other races,” they noted. “In other words, personal-rating scores make the top-performing Asian-American applicants less competitive while making other top-performing applicants more competitive.”
The other seven Ivy League schools, as well as nine private universities such as Stanford and M.I.T. sided with Harvard in a brief filed Monday, “emphasiz[ing] the profound importance of a diverse student body for their educational missions.”
“[Students for Fair Admissions president] Edward Blum and SFFA continue to present a deliberately misleading narrative, made possible only by their deeply flawed statistical analysis, to eliminate the consideration of race in college admissions,” Harvard said in a Monday statement. “Their case is against Harvard, but their actions challenge the freedom and flexibility – entirely consistent with long set legal parameters – of every college and university in America to expand opportunity and create the diverse communities that enhance the learning of every student.”
Both parties want the U.S. District Court in Boston to grant them summary judgement in their respective favor before the October trial.
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