Harvard vs Students for fair admissions - Who is right?

For starters, Students for Fair Admissions claims that Harvard intentionally discriminates against Asian American students when applying. However, two weeks ago, the federal court agreed with a lower court ruling that Harvard does not discriminate against Asian Americans.

Harvard, on the other hand, claims that its limited use of race in its admission process is to create diversity among students in their institution.

In my opinion, I understand that Harvard is trying to create an institution with people from different backgrounds and cultures. However, from the perspective of an Asian-American who could not get into Harvard because of their race, even though they had the amount of knowledge and talent, I think it is normal for them to be upset.

Nevertheless, I agree with Harvard in a way that they are trying to create an institution with a wide variety of people from different countries and cultures.

It is a fact proven by many statistics and researches that Asians do better at school in terms of academics and test scores, considering the different educational cultures. In fact, seven out of ten countries with the smartest children, considering the average test scores, IQ scores, and Nobel prize rankings, are Asian.

According to the analysis of Duke University economist Peter Arcidiacono, an Asian-American applicant who is a male, not economically disadvantaged, and has, based on his other characteristics, a 25 percent chance of getting in, would see his odds markedly increase if he belonged to another group. His chances of admission would be 36 percent if he were white; 77 percent if he were Hispanic; and 95 percent if he were black.

For this reason, there is an awfully big competition between Asians than any other race when going to prestigious institutions and if Harvard keeps picking Asians in their admission process, the school might have too many Asians. In addition, there have been many talks about “Harvard’s secret system to avoid too many Asians”.

In conclusion, I think both sides have their own reasonable argument.