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BOSTON – If admission to Harvard was based solely on academic merit, Americans of Asian descent would account for 43% of the freshmen class, while African Americans would represent less than 1%, according to an internal Harvard report discussed at a lawsuit that was held Wednesday in Washington.
Lawyers representing a non-profit organization that pursued school alleging intentional discrimination against US applicants of Asian origin were deeply entrenched in the 2013 internal review by the court . During the process, they highlighted whether some criteria used by Harvard to assess candidates disadvantaged US-Asian candidates and the few that the Dean of Admissions had made data when he had received the report there was five years.
US District Judge Allison Burroughs will decide after three weeks of trial whether Harvard's admission practices violate federal civil rights law.
The internal study, conducted by the Harvard Institutional Research Bureau and described as preliminary, simulated the appearance of the accepted class based on factors considered by the Harvard Admissions Office. The result: Americans of Asian descent behaved better when the class was designed solely from academics. The share of Americans of Asian descent decreases to 31.4% when recruited athletes and children of Harvard graduates are taken into account. When extracurricular and personal assessments also come into play, the share of Americans of Asian origin drops to 26%.
Americans of Asian descent were the only racial or ethnic group to see their projected class representation decline with the inclusion of extra-curricular activities and personal assessments.
Most elite schools consider a range of factors when determining admissions, in part because most candidates have stellar notes and stellar results and that they are relatively indistinguishable one of the other. Schools say they look at candidates holistically to make sure they have a good mix of students of different backgrounds, who can then learn from each other in and out of class .
The report shows that the actual admitted student population, which also takes into account race, gender and other factors not taken into account in the internal simulations, was composed of 18.7% of the students. American Asians and 10.5% of African-Americans combined over the decade examined.
The report's introductory pages indicate that topics to be studied include, among others, affordability for low-income students, the impact of the engineering program on gender parity, and "The admission process." does it disadvantage Asians? "
When his dean of admissions, William Fitzsimmons, received the report in 2013, according to his testimony on Wednesday, he continued discussions on the impact of financial aid programs and policy changes. early admission. He added that he did not specify in his section whether certain factors were disadvantageous to Asians and that he had not forwarded the report to the university president or other senior officials of the university.
"These are very remarkable results here," said Fitzsimmons, who noted that the planned class makeup was what the admissions office already knew. He said it was "good to have this information".
"Our job is simply to ensure that these factors are applied impartially," said Fitzsimmons, Dean of Admissions at Harvard since 1986. He added that the school did not hide the factors taken into account, including references in his admission materials on extracurricular activities and inheritance status.
The Office of Institutional Research indicated in its report that additional details regarding personal scoring, which reviews factors such as recommendations from teachers and counselors, tests and interviews, "may provide additional information."
Personal notation is one of four major areas that admissions officers consider, alongside academics, sports and extracurricular activities. Candidates also receive an overall score.
Much of the case is about whether Harvard takes race into account in his personal assessments, essays, and interviews. The school says she's looking for features such as courage, humility and humor to determine if a candidate would be a good roommate or would contribute to campus culture. As a group, Asian-American applicants receive fewer personal grades than any other racial or ethnic group, and higher scores for academics and extracurricular activities.
Asked that the process was likely to penalize Americans of Asian descent because of his personal score, Fitzsimmons said on Wednesday: "It's still a concern," but "it's not a big deal." personal assessment is part of the overall assessment of the school.
On Wednesday, Fitzsimmons was also questioned about the relationship between Harvard's fundraising division and its admissions office. Plaintiffs' counsel put forward a series of e-mail exchanges involving applicants whose families had made significant donations.
Mr Fitzsimmons said Wednesday that it was "important for the long-term strength of the institution" to consider the admission of donor parents.
Write to Melissa Korn at [email protected]
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