harvard building

Asian-American student drops discrimination claims against Ivy Leagues

February 21, 2012 · Posted By: Emily Kelley

An Asian-American applicant who was rejected by Harvard and Princeton Universities has withdrawn federal complaints accusing the universities of racial bias in admissions, Bloomberg News reported.

The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights was investigating a discrimination complaint against Harvard University filed by an Asian-American applicant rejected for admission to the current freshman class.

Complaints on the applicant’s behalf were filed in August 2011 against both universities. The student, whose family originally came from India, was among the top performers in his California high school class.

The civil-rights office has already been investigating Princeton University since 2006 based on a similar complaint filed by an Asian-American student, Jian Li, who alleged discrimination after being denied admission there.

Li got top SAT scores but was rejected by MIT, Stanford, and three Ivy League colleges, including Princeton.

The U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights informed both universities last week that the most recent complaints had been withdrawn, spokesmen for the institutions confirmed. The withdrawal ends an investigation the office had recently opened at Harvard. The investigation at Princeton continues, but the latest allegation has been dropped from that case.

The civil-rights office similarly examined Harvard for alleged bias against Asian-Americans in the late 1980s. Although that investigation concluded that Harvard admitted Asian-Americans at a lower rate than white applicants with similar qualifications, the office attributed its finding not to illegal discrimination, but to Asian-Americans’ underrepresentation in two pools of applicants that Harvard legally gave preferential treatment: recruited athletes and the children of alumni.

Asian-Americans made up 16 percent of Harvard undergraduates in the 2010-2011 academic year, down from 18 percent in 2005-2006, according to the university’s website. The proportion of Asian-Americans among Princeton undergraduates increased to 17.7 percent this year from 14.1 percent in 2007- 2008.