mathbabe

It’s disappointing that your opinion piece shows little understanding of the real issues in the pending Harvard litigation including the heavily publicized evidence of anti-Asian bias.

The pleadings filed by the parties are readily available as are multiple summaries of those pleadings that the Harvard Crimson has included in its recent news pieces.

Harvard admits that over at least a six year period or so Asian American applicants consistently received higher ratings on grades, standardized tests, alumni interviews and extracurriculars than white applicants and yet consistently received lower “personality” scores from Harvard admissions officers who rarely ever met the applicants themselves.

Internal Harvard studies noted the above at a point in time when Harvard alums ran for Harvard’s board on a platform of greater transparency in admissions citing as evidence how Asian American admits had flat lined over a period of 2 decades. Harvard did not disclose the existence of these internal studies during the period running up to the election of that set of board members. Those challengers were defeated.

These internal reports became public only after Harvard was forced to turn them over in the discovery phase of the ongoing litigation.

Now, Harvard claims its own internal reports, which it had suppressed, were flawed.

Harvard’s statistics expert and the plaintiffs’ have clashed over whose methodology is superior

Note that the evidence shows that Asian American applicants vis a vis white are disfavored even before legacy and athletic admits are considered..

Harvard cannot, and does not, attempt to defend any policy that would favor white applicants over Asian American applicants as promoting diversity. Instead, it has hired an expert to explain its own internal analyses were “flawed.”

With your math background, you have the ability to evaluate the claims of the competing statisticians better than the average outside blogger.

Instead, your Bloomberg piece demonizes those who would study for a standardized test as if that’s somehow gaming the system.

Do you level the “gaming the system” charge against privileged white students who attend elite prep schools, play preppy sports like field hockey, crew, lacrosse, fencing, etc. to benefit from athletic preferences, have parents who involve themselves in their Ivy alma maters to maximize a legacy preference, etc.? Of course not.

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