File photo of Harvard University. The Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights is investigating a complaint that Harvard and Princeton universities discriminates against Asian-Americans.
The Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights is investigating a complaint that Harvard and Princeton universities discriminates against Asian-Americans.
The investigation began with a complaint from an Indian-American student in California who was near the top of his high school class but was rejected at both schools.
The civil rights agency doesn’t discuss the substance of pending cases, so there’s no telling what evidence the Indian-American family might have to support a discrimination claim. Mere rejection - - by either Harvard or Princeton - - likely would not suffice, as both schools routinely reject students with perfect SAT scores and grade-point averages.
A Harvard spokesman told reporter Golden the institution does not discriminate. Asian-Americans make up 16 percent of Harvard undergraduates.
Asian-American students have challenged Ivy League admission policies before.
Jian Li, a Chinese American, filed a civil rights complaint after Princeton rejected him in 2006. He’d scored a perfect 2400 on the SAT and graduated in the top 1 percent of his class, yet had been rejected at several Ivies.
Golden reports that the agency received a fresh complaint in September targeting Yale, subsequently withdrawn.
It’s questionable, though, whether any student could prove discrimination by those schools without access to stacks of admission data.
Harvard’s admission rate has dipped to 6.2 percent, and Yale and Princeton aren’t far behind. There is simply no guarantee of admission, no matter one’s credentials.
There’s plenty of research to suggest, though, that Asian-American applicants must bring higher test scores and GPAs than whites, Hispanics or Blacks to gain entry.
Golden cites a 2011 study of admissions at Duke: Asian-American enrollees scored 1457 on the reading and math sections of the SAT, compared to 1416 for whites, 1347 for Hispanics and 1275 for Blacks.
据报道，美国教育部民权办公室针对哈佛大学和普林斯顿大学在本科招生时歧视亚裔的投诉已展开调查。
调查始自一名来自加州的印度裔美国学生的投诉，该学生是某高中的优等生，但同时遭到两所学校的拒绝。
美国教育部民权办公室并未讨论这桩待决案件的实质内容，因此这个印裔家庭支持歧视投诉的证据不得而知。如果仅仅是遭到学校拒绝，不管是哈佛还是普林斯顿，似乎不足以支持起诉，因为两所学校经常会拒绝SAT满分和GPA高分学生。
哈佛大学的一位发言人告诉记者戈登，哈佛大学并没有歧视亚裔申请人。亚裔学生占到了哈佛本科生的16%。
此前亚裔学生也曾挑战过常春藤盟校的招生政策。
在2006年遭到普林斯顿拒绝后，华裔美国人李建(音)曾提起民事权利申诉。他在SAT考试中取得2400分满分，毕业时成绩排在全班前1%，但仍被多所常春藤盟校拒绝。
戈登报道说，民权办公室去年9月曾收到过一起针对耶鲁大学的投诉，但随后投诉被撤销。
但值得怀疑的是，是不是所有学生都能在无法接触到大量入学申请数据的情况下证明自己遭到了歧视。
哈佛大学的录取率已经降至6.2%，耶鲁大学和普林斯顿也高不出多少。没有什么能保证学生被录取，不管他有什么证书。
但大量调查表明，亚裔美国申请人的考试成绩、GPA分数要比欧美裔、西班牙裔和非裔高，才能被录取。
戈登引述了2011年杜克大学的一项入学调查，亚裔美国入学者SAT考试的阅读和数学成绩平均为1457分，而欧美裔为1416分，西班牙裔1347分，非裔1275分。
Vocabulary:
SAT: 全称Scholastic Assessment Test，中文名称为学术能力评估测试。由美国大学委员会(College Board)主办，SAT成绩是世界各国高中生申请美国名校学习及奖学金的重要参考。
grade-point average: GPA，学生各科成绩平均积分点
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