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Family wealth and links with the school; sports superiority; and an African-American or Latin American origin greatly improves the applicant's chances. The e-mails show that in some cases, students whose families have committed more than $ 1 million to finance a building or staff a faculty position benefit from an advantage.
However, coming from a household with an income below $ 60,000 or having a migrant parent can also give a boost. And although the genre does not make any difference, knowing Latin and Greek and being interested in the humanities might attract the attention of an admissions officer.
These various factors may be self-evident, but this week's testimony to US District Judge Allison Burroughs provided a rare and detailed insight into the secret filtering process at a university that receives 40,000 applications annually and ends with a 1,660 students.
The case, which continues on Friday and is expected to last until the end of the month, was carried by conservative activists who created a group called Students for Fair Admissions and argue that Harvard disavows the very good Asian Asians and gives a boost to African Americans. Americans, Hispanics and other traditional beneficiaries of positive action.
Dean of Admissions William Fitzsimmons spent four days at the helm. This is perhaps his strongest defense of the week against claims that Harvard would be biased against American candidates of Asian descent.
Asked by Harvard's attorney, Fitzsimmons said that there were "never" quotas on Americans of Asian descent, "never" of floor for the number of Americans. Black or Hispanic students, and that no attempt was made to guarantee a constant number of admissions among racial groups.
"We are doing everything in our power to treat each candidate in a comprehensive and fair manner," said Fitzsimmons, who joined the office 46 years ago and has been the Dean of Admissions since 1986.
Referring to the evolution of diversity screening over the decades, Fitzsimmons said that Harvard had become "a profoundly better place – only with regard to what students learn from each other, what teachers and those of us who work at Harvard's incredibly diverse classes that we have today. "
The trial drew crowds overwhelmed and intense media attention. Yet both parties, as well as Judge Burroughs, have stated that they expect the dispute and the future of racial affirmative action to be resolved in the Supreme Court. Any decision of this kind from the nine judges will be in at least a year and, with the appointment of more and more cautious judges, especially with the addition of Judge Brett Kavanaugh this month, the probabilities of the judges will be reduced. a decision for the challengers increase.
The case was organized by activist Edward Blum, who in the past had used white plaintiffs to challenge racial policies, and whose general purpose was to obtain the cancellation of the 1978 Supreme Court decision that for the first time ratified the admission race to ensure campus diversity. Students for Fair Admissions, now supported by the Trump government, filed the case under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits racial discrimination in private institutions receiving federal funds.
Benefits of the legacy of major donors
The challengers' lawyers collected testimonials about practices that they felt would reduce the chances of Americans of Asian descent, particularly through the use of a category of "personal" traits open on which Americans of Asian origin get a disproportionate score in relation to their academic and extracurricular skills. categorization.
They also highlighted the secular preferences of the children of rich donors and alumni.
"[I]Do you admit the children and loved ones of the big donors who matter to you and others to Harvard? ", asked SFFA's lawyer Fitzsimmons after acknowledging the management of a list of the deans of the children of the major donors who had submitted their candidacy.
"It is important for the long-term strength of the institution to have the resources (…)." We need to provide scholarships, "said Fitzsimmons," but also to all. other purposes at the university ".
An email that Fitzsimmons received in June 2013 from the Dean of the Harvard Kennedy School nicknamed him "My Hero" and expressed his gratitude for the admission of children from important donors.
"Once again, you've done wonders, I'm just delighted by all the people you've been able to admit," Dean David Ellwood wrote, noting that the family had promised to pay for a building.
In another email presented at the trial, a former tennis coach in 2014 thanked Fitzsimmons for meeting a student whose family donated to fund "two tenured faculty positions" and gave 1,1 million dollars over four years. Fitzsimmons responded that the student was considering receiving a "probable" letter, which, according to the Dean, "is passed when a candidate is pushed by another institution to commit to that institution".
Test scores, Greek and silver
Fitzsimmons testified that Harvard, in its quest for greater diversity, was taking steps to increase the chances of African-American and Latin-American students, starting with recruiting letters when their standardized test scores were in the average, rather than in the upper range required for white. and American high school students from Asia to receive recruiting letters.
He stated that the decision is based in part on economic assumptions. "This is really the economic disadvantage associated with (…) these two ethnic groups," said Fitzsimmons at one point, referring to blacks and Hispanics. "These are students who have fewer opportunities, on average at least, to be well prepared and pass standardized tests due to lack of opportunities often in their schools and communities.
Fitzsimmons said that in the same vein, Harvard sometimes looks for difficulties in the parenting profession. "I think there's a huge benefit," said William Lee, interviewed by Harvard Lawyer, "because I think, once again, you bring to Harvard your life experience. And your life experience has often been deeply shaped by your parents and family situation. "
"For example," he said, "let's say you're the son or daughter of a migrant worker." It's one thing to talk about migrant workers and immigration in the abstract, for example, it's something else to live with someone for four years. [as an undergraduate on campus] who has lived this experience ".
Addressing another type of diversity, Fitzsimmons spoke of students who studied Latin and Greek and likely to take classical courses on the Cambridge campus in Massachusetts.
"One of the things we are always interested in is bringing more humanists to Harvard," he said. "Unfortunately, if you look at college college reports every year, it seems like almost every year, fewer and fewer students want to do things like the humanities at the university." And we think that we have an excellent program teaching more than 80 languages. "
Judge Burroughs let the testimony of the week unfold with few questions. Fitzsimmons said, however, that "advice" that favors candidates, such as rich alumni, "comes into play only at a high level of merit".
"But have not we seen an earlier chart that says there are a large number of athletes and legacies that could not enter without this tip?" Burroughs asked.
Fitzsimmons replied: "Some people need a tip, that's true, but if you are considering this in a national sense, they are all very, very competitive …. Our group of candidates, you have saw the 8000 people with the perfect notes and so on that you've seen.It's a pretty rare basin at the end. "
American applicants of Asian origin
While Hughes and his AFFA lawyer colleague Adam Mortara were introducing admissions data schemas during the week, Fitzsimmons acknowledged that the legacy of "council" or "more" factor does not exist. do not help, overall, Americans of Asian descent. The data presented in the exhibits presented by the challengers also showed that, Harvard auditors taking into account demographic and personal factors other than academics, the chances of American Asian candidates drop considerably.
The challengers insist that the category that most affects Americans of Asian origin includes "personal" traits, from "sympathy" to leadership. Harvard said information for this category comes from a variety of sources, including teachers and guidance counselors.
In his opening statement on Monday, Mortara claimed that Americans of Asian descent behaved "shockingly … badly" in relation to blacks and that the category of personal traits could be manipulated by admissions officers looking for some percentages of racial minorities.
Fitzsimmons said that when personal characteristics and other demographic factors are added to the composition of African American candidates, their chances of being admitted increase dramatically.
The percentage of US-Asian students admitted to Harvard has been steadily increasing and, for the last promotion of 2022, it has reached about 23%. African Americans were around 15% and Latinos 12%. A category of mostly white students accounts for 50%.
Fitzsimmons said: "When I first started admitting in this country, there were almost no Americans of Asian descent. than about 5% in the early 80s, and now we are at 22.7% ".
He stated in his testimony that he had never observed bias against American applicants of Asian descent. Mr Fitzsimmons asserted, when he was specifically asked about "personal" valuations, that SFFA's lawyers could reflect stereotypes about Americans of Asian descent, which he did not want to see. there was no discrimination.
Instead, he said, the ratings flow "from a process of asking readers to review the evidence contained in the application, and examine everything in a meaningful way. thoroughly in this application (…).
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