Harvard admitted a record number of Asian American students this year, NBC News reports.
Acceptance rates among the Ivy Leagues met historic lows this year, Forbes reports. Yale University’s 4.35% acceptance rate was the lowest in the university’s history. Harvard’s acceptance rate was 3.4%, the second lowest in its history.
Last week, Harvard released a report breaking down the demographics of this year’s admitted students. According to NBC News, the report found that 29.9% of applicants were Asian Americans, a 2.1% increase from last year.
Julie Park, an associate professor at the University of Maryland, provided NBC News with two possible reasons for the record number of Asian American accepted students. The increase could reflect the country’s growing Asian American population. There also may have been an increase in the number of Asian American legacy admits as the admissions process favors the children of Harvard alumni.
NBC News noted that the record admissions statistic comes shortly after a lawsuit alleging that Harvard University discriminates against Asian applicants made its way to the Supreme Court late last year. The court’s decision could ban affirmative action. According to Reuters, nine states have already banned affirmative action: Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Washington.
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Unfortunately, the percentage of admits who are Black, Native American, and Native Hawaiian have slightly dropped. Possible that Harvard is doing that intentionally to show that any increase of admits of Asian descent would negatively affect other racial groups. Also possible that some of the methods to reduce Asian admits are less effective.
The percentage of white students have consistently been protected and always the highest of any racial group. We need to stop fighting between races for the remaining spots. Stop looking at any Asian advancement or opportunities as taking away from other minority groups. Affirmative action programs have helped applicants (including Asians) from low income and low opportunity environments. Pitting all other races against Asians gives them fuel to squash efforts for all affirmative action programs. Asians will get blamed. Anti-Asian hate increases. Other minority races will see further drops in enrollment and opportunities.