RUTHFULLY YOURS

Sara Harberson, former associate dean of admissions at the University of Pennsylvania and dean of admissions and financial aid at Franklin & Marshall, tells “The Truth About ‘Holistic’ College Admissions” in a Los Angeles Times op-ed last month that I would have missed but for the ever-watchful eyes of Roger Clegg.

But not to worry if you missed it, too. She doesn’t say anything that you don’t already know. For example:

Nowadays nobody on an admissions committee would dare use the term racial “quotas,” but racial stereotyping is alive and well. And although colleges would never admit students based on “quotas,” they fearlessly will “sculpt” the class with race and gender percentages in mind.

Ms. Harberson’s main point is that racial stereotyping is pervasive in college admissions offices. That is no doubt true, but as if to drive her point home there is even an unwitting example of it in her own article:

For example, there’s an expectation that Asian Americans will be the highest test scorers and at the top of their class; anything less can become an easy reason for a denial. And yet even when Asian American students meet this high threshold, they may be destined for the wait list or outright denial because they don’t stand out among the other high-achieving students in their cohort. The most exceptional academic applicants may be seen as the least unique, and so admissions officers are rarely moved to fight for them.

In the end, holistic admissions can allow for a gray zone of bias at elite institutions, working against a group such as Asian Americans that excels in the black-and-white world of academic achievement.

Ms. Harberson obviously shares — or at least repeats without challenge here — the stereotype that Asian American applicants have demonstrated less leadership potential and are academic grinds who participate less in extra-curricular activities than members of other racial and ethnic groups. If she will look carefully at the evidence in the complaint of the 60 Asian American groups against Harvard that she mentions (see pages 7 – 10), as well as the lawsuit against Harvard and the University of North Carolina, she would see that is not true.