How Asian Americans Became The Center Of The Affirmative Action Debate

We never asked to be admitted because of our race, we just asked not be rejected because of it.

I think universities should start blind applications. It keeps it fair and while they are at it, they should also ban legacy advantages

The fact that this young man went to such great lengths just to get his answer shows what he's made of. I hope he knows that he was going to succeed no matter where he went for college

The other sad part about these cases is that it inadvertently pitches Asians against blacks, minority against minority.

Coming from an Indian American who attended a Public Ivy, I'm more upset about the impact that legacy admissions has at these universities. This practice needs to end as it continues to have the largest impact on the applicant pool at "elite" universities.

"they're too clever for their own good" I've heard this said so many times about Asians. If we're going to go for affirmative action, let's have more Asians in media, film, journalism, sport. Let's force the NBA and NHL and NFL to have more Asians as part of quotas.

America needs to make education equal in all public schools then. Money needs to be put in lower income community schools.

A year later, this debate has aged like milk.

Grew up in an Asian American neighborhood and saw this happen. There was this boy who was like, honestly one of the kindest people, super smart, great GPA, great with people, and constantly involved in school leadership. He even went on to do humanitarian things in 3rd world countries after graduation, and I always thought he had great leadership skills for someone at such a young age. I was really surprised to hear he got rejected from his top schools. However, another Asian American friend of mine who was on the lower percentile of grades in the IB program got into all those schools. She told me she felt bad because almost all the other IB kids got rejected from those schools, but she felt like it was because in her statement, she wrote about her overcoming cancer. The standards seem incredibly high using this system. That boy really should’ve also got in. And they always talk about how high performing Asian American students are, but they don’t talk about the other half of that statistic: that Asian Americans have the highest gap in wealth in the country. I think there’s something to that that’s correlated with what’s talked about in the video. Also, not to dox the original intent of this process of trying to prevent discrimination and acknowledge the discrepancy of privileges one race gets over another, but perhaps creating more resources to boost support and quality education for communities that have less access to it can help balance it out for other races that this policy was supposed to help. It’s a balancing act, and totally will take some time. I’m happy to see us learn from and want to move forward with better policies for everyone! Healthy discussion is a great step forward and so encouraging.

This is what happens when you create a unequal system for admission, give one more points and less to another. The consequences are that, everyone feel discriminated.

People at the top are very good at pitting groups of the middle class against each other.

They should perform one of those classical experiments where they submit different university applications with identical SAT scores, GPAs, Statements of Purpose, letters of recommendation, extra curricular activities, etc. The only differences would be the applicants' name, ticked off box and zip code.

I had a friend who was Asian American and didn't get into Michigan even though he had the grades and the SAT scores. Another person in their grade had subpar grades, and SAT scores but got in due to the legacy enrollment procedures. Really sad, I don't even think he went to college based on that decision a few years ago.

I love the excuse of affirmative action as if there aren’t other students who were accepted from family donors. How about cracking down on that

As an adult in the working world, let me tell all the students out there, 99% of employers don’t care where you got your degree. They care if you can do your job well. And college doesn’t really prepare you for a job. 75% of my job I learned on the job.

I’m Asian American and what he said about employers not recognizing schools outside the Ivy League is kinda delusional, but I understand his point. Good work.

A merit-based, blind application is all u need. Erease the applicants' name, race, and address while making decisions on admission.

So he was accepted into two Ivy League Universities but wants to know why he wasn’t accepted into Harvard, files a lawsuit, then decides to attend a non Ivy League institution. Am I missing something?

A very small percentage of students are selected through affirmative action. Not everyone can attend the same top Ivy. You’re life isn’t over because Harvard isn’t on your resume.

Black students make about 7% of the total population in these Ivy League schools. Most of them major in non stem courses. The probability of these Asians getting denied is still high. There won't be a significant change in the acceptance rate. In fact, it'll be a big win for the smart black kids who'll take pride in their accomplishments without being labeled as beneficiaries of the system.