By Louis Chan
AsAmNews National Correspondent
A Chinese American student from Orlando with a 5.3 weighted GPA has filed a complaint against Cornell and Columbia Universities after being rejected for admission.
Hubert Zhao is a National Merit Scholarship winner and was president and captain of his high school’s Science Olympiad, Debate, and Science Bowl teams.
The Asian American Coalition for Education has written a letter to the U.S. Department of Education asking for a full investigation into Zhao’s complaint.
“What happened to Hubert Zhao is another example of the widespread and systematic illegal discrimination against Asian American students by many colleges,” AACE wrote in its letter. “The members of AACE are outraged by such blatant discrimination. Tens of thousands of talented Asian American children are treated as second class citizens who are less “diverse” solely because of their race.”
Zhao is the son of Yukong Zhao, the president of AACE which has filed numerous discrimination complaints against top schools across the country. The letter implies Hubert was rejected in retaliation for his father’s activism.
The group also pointed out that out of Zhao’s class of 700 students, only he and an unnamed Indian American student were named National Merit Scholarship semifinalists. Neither were accepted to any top 20 schools while others of other racial groups in their class were.
Earlier this summer, the U.S. Supreme Court found no discrimination against Asian Americans in holistic admissions.
Last summer, the Department of Education rejected a discrimination complaint filed against Harvard. Two months later, a similar complaint against Princeton also was rejected.
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RE: Asian American files discrimination complaint against Ivy League Schools: So ridiculous. As in the complaint is ridiculous. This article fails to address why he might NOT have gotten in. He may not have gotten in because of a number of reasons. A person can have the highest GPA and scores possible. It does NOT mean they get to go to an ivy league school. Every school has a quota of students that it can allow in. Perhaps another student with a lower score made a break-through invention. Perhaps another student with a lower score participated and showed more leadership in other areas. Another student might have been less bright but showed more capability in another area. Also many ivy leagues, Harvard particularly, are famously known for giving huge breaks to minorities to allow them to attend. This to me sounds like a whiny kid is complaining because he didn’t get everything delivered on a silver platter and that’s not how education works.
RE:Asian Americans files discrimination complaint against Ivy League Schools:Mia, there is another possibility. Perhaps Asian Americans are systematically discriminated against. No, I take that back, they ARE unfairly treated by these universities. There are many examples of hard working, highly intelligent, highly qualified Asian American applicants denied admissions due to their race. My daughter is one such example. She is a straight A student with a perfect 36 ACT score and a nearly perfect SAT score, an editor of her school paper, co-captain of the mock trial and moot court teams. She is well liked by her peers and teachers. She was also active in several causes. She advocated for the environment and even won a $3000 top prize and shared $1500 with her high school. She spoke up for the rights of the poor with her ardent support of the $15 minimum wage and for justice for the victims of police brutality. She is definitely not a whiny entitled privileged kid. But, she too was denied admission to all the Ivy League schools! Unfortunately, her story is not unique to the Asian American experience. So many of our youths worked hard, sacrificed leisure and fun times and their families scrimped and saved for their children’s education only for them to be marginalized in our society.
Mia, please do not do that to them as well. Thank you.
RE: Asian American files discrimination complaint against Ivy League schools:Frank: Sorry to hear about your daughter. But you do have to realize that the selection process is small! Not everyone can get in. Not even a model perfect student like your daughter. It doesn’t have to do with race as you think. It is simply a holistic process of choosing students. If doing what your daughter did would get people into an ivy league school, think about how many people would be able to get in! Your daughter’s story is not unique to the Asian American experience but it is also not unique. There are many, many ivy league students who are of Asian descent. They are not complaining of racism. Maybe that’s because they got in? So when you don’t get in you immediately turn to racism? And not consider any of the other more likely possibilities? That’s called whining.