<story><title>Harvard Accused of Bias Against Asian-Americans</title><url>http://www.wsj.com/articles/asian-american-organizations-seek-federal-probe-of-harvard-admission-policies-1431719348</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>anon-obviously</author><text>&lt;i&gt;The complaint argues that elite schools “that use race-neutral admissions” have far higher Asian-American enrollment than Harvard. At California Institute of Technology, for instance, about 40% of undergraduates are Asian-American, about twice that at Harvard.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Interestingly, Ron Unz did a lengthy expose on this issue in 2012, and arrived at similar conclusions:
&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theamericanconservative.com&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;the-myth-of-american-meritocracy&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theamericanconservative.com&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;the-myth-of-...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;He found ample evidence of anti-Asian quotas at Harvard, Yale, and other elite institutions, and perhaps more controversial, evidence of what appears to be a form of affirmative action in favor of Jews:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;In fact, Harvard reported that 45.0 percent of its undergraduates in 2011 were white Americans, but since Jews were 25 percent of the student body, the enrollment of non-Jewish whites might have been as low as 20 percent, though the true figure was probably somewhat higher.51 The Jewish levels for Yale and Columbia were also around 25 percent, while white Gentiles were 22 percent at the former and just 15 percent at the latter. The remainder of the Ivy League followed this same general pattern.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Jews comprise a mere 2% of the population yet a massive 25% of the student body at Harvard, Yale, and Columbia. The contrast with Caltech and UC schools with more merit-based admissions processes is quite stark:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;But Caltech’s current undergraduates are just 5.5 percent Jewish, and the figure seems to have been around this level for some years; meanwhile, Asian enrollment is 39 percent, or seven times larger. It is intriguing that the school which admits students based on the strictest, most objective academic standards has by a very wide margin the lowest Jewish enrollment for any elite university.&lt;p&gt;Let us next turn to the five most selective campuses of the University of California system, whose admissions standards shifted substantially toward objective meritocracy following the 1996 passage of Prop. 209. The average Jewish enrollment is just over 8 percent, or roughly one-third that of the 25 percent found at Harvard and most of the Ivy League, whose admissions standards are supposedly far tougher. Meanwhile, some 40 percent of the students on these UC campuses are Asian, a figure almost five times as high. Once again, almost no elite university in the country has a Jewish enrollment as low as the average for these highly selective UC campuses&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;(Unz himself is Jewish, in case you&amp;#x27;re wondering.)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>gyardley</author><text>Ron Unz used different methodologies for figuring out the percentage of Jewish &amp;#x27;top academic achievers&amp;#x27; and the percentage of Jewish students attending elite colleges, making his statistics suspect. If you&amp;#x27;re going to count Jews to make an argument, you need to count Jews in a consistent &lt;i&gt;way&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;p&gt;Andrew Gelman has the details:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;andrewgelman.com&amp;#x2F;2013&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;12&amp;#x2F;that-claim-that-harvard-admissions-discriminate-in-favor-of-jews-after-checking-the-statistics-maybe-not&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;andrewgelman.com&amp;#x2F;2013&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;12&amp;#x2F;that-claim-that-harvard-a...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Harvard Accused of Bias Against Asian-Americans</title><url>http://www.wsj.com/articles/asian-american-organizations-seek-federal-probe-of-harvard-admission-policies-1431719348</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>anon-obviously</author><text>&lt;i&gt;The complaint argues that elite schools “that use race-neutral admissions” have far higher Asian-American enrollment than Harvard. At California Institute of Technology, for instance, about 40% of undergraduates are Asian-American, about twice that at Harvard.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Interestingly, Ron Unz did a lengthy expose on this issue in 2012, and arrived at similar conclusions:
&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theamericanconservative.com&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;the-myth-of-american-meritocracy&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theamericanconservative.com&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;the-myth-of-...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;He found ample evidence of anti-Asian quotas at Harvard, Yale, and other elite institutions, and perhaps more controversial, evidence of what appears to be a form of affirmative action in favor of Jews:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;In fact, Harvard reported that 45.0 percent of its undergraduates in 2011 were white Americans, but since Jews were 25 percent of the student body, the enrollment of non-Jewish whites might have been as low as 20 percent, though the true figure was probably somewhat higher.51 The Jewish levels for Yale and Columbia were also around 25 percent, while white Gentiles were 22 percent at the former and just 15 percent at the latter. The remainder of the Ivy League followed this same general pattern.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Jews comprise a mere 2% of the population yet a massive 25% of the student body at Harvard, Yale, and Columbia. The contrast with Caltech and UC schools with more merit-based admissions processes is quite stark:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;But Caltech’s current undergraduates are just 5.5 percent Jewish, and the figure seems to have been around this level for some years; meanwhile, Asian enrollment is 39 percent, or seven times larger. It is intriguing that the school which admits students based on the strictest, most objective academic standards has by a very wide margin the lowest Jewish enrollment for any elite university.&lt;p&gt;Let us next turn to the five most selective campuses of the University of California system, whose admissions standards shifted substantially toward objective meritocracy following the 1996 passage of Prop. 209. The average Jewish enrollment is just over 8 percent, or roughly one-third that of the 25 percent found at Harvard and most of the Ivy League, whose admissions standards are supposedly far tougher. Meanwhile, some 40 percent of the students on these UC campuses are Asian, a figure almost five times as high. Once again, almost no elite university in the country has a Jewish enrollment as low as the average for these highly selective UC campuses&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;(Unz himself is Jewish, in case you&amp;#x27;re wondering.)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>artnep</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m skeptical of the Jewish statistics, which are allegedly based on Hillel documents.&lt;p&gt;Is Harvard really 25% Jewish? Or is that the fraction of domestic students who have some (possibly small) Jewish ancestry?&lt;p&gt;And what&amp;#x27;s the source that Caltech is 5.5% Jewish? Could that mean 5.5% are actually practicing?&lt;p&gt;Did Hillel actually perform a serious survey&amp;#x2F;study in these schools, or are these numbers based on some student&amp;#x27;s guess?&lt;p&gt;Admittedly, I haven&amp;#x27;t looked through his citations and supporting material, which looks pretty extensive.</text></comment>