What's the old saying? Where there's a will, there's a way. Yeah, that one.
In a June 2023 decision, the Supreme Court held that admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment and that race could no longer be used as a factor in admissions.
Welp, some of those crafty college administrators have been using an interesting tactic in an attempt to circumvent the SCOTUS ruling: using essay prompts to flag an author's race—while rejecting the use of standardized testing to boost diversity in admissions.
Did I mention that the same universities are also rejecting students with impeccable credentials?
I know — try to control your shock and amazement.
In the latest example, Zach Yadegari, an 18-year-old high school student behind an AI app generating $30 million in annual revenue, has been rejected by 15 top colleges, including Ivy League universities Harvard, Columbia, and Princeton.
Yadegari, the co-founder of the photo calorie app Cal AI, shared his experience with college admissions last week in a post on X. Yadegari disclosed that he had a 4.0 GPA and a 34 ACT score. ACT scores are reported out of a maximum of 36; Yadegari's score places him among the top 5% of test-takers.
Despite Yadegari's achievements, he was rejected from 15 of the 18 schools he applied to, with only Georgia Tech, the University of Texas, and the University of Miami extending him acceptances. Yadegari posted screenshots of his personal statement, which described how he went from coding at the age of 7 to building Cal AI and interviewing his first employee to work on the app.
Why was this brilliant young man's application rejected by multiple universities? You already know the answer.
In another example, Stanley Zhong, a 19-year-old with a 4.42 GPA and nearly perfect SAT score, was rejected by 16 of 18 universities. Stanley and his father filed a lawsuit against the University of California system for discrimination against Asian-American applicants.
Stanley Zhong was a near-perfect college applicant. Out of the more than 2 million kids who take the SAT annually, he’s one of roughly 2,000 to score a 1590 or higher. His high school GPA was a 4.42 on a 4.0 scale. He even had an offer in hand to work a PhD-level job at Google before graduating high school.
Stanley, who intended to study computer science, also managed his own startup, e-document signature platform Rabbit-Sign, while still a high schooler.
By anyone’s expectations, the Palo Alto, Calif., teen should have been Harvard- or MIT-bound. Yet Stanley, now 19, was met with disappointment after disappointment in 2023 when college admissions letters started trickling in.
Again, color me shocked.
Law school professor and political commentator Jonathan Turley shared his thoughts on the racist problem plaguing fair admission standards across America in a Friday column:
Some schools, like the University of California system, previously abandoned standardized testing to boost minority admissions and make challenges more difficult. A few schools have since reversed the decision to restore academic standards. However, schools appear to be using race criteria in more subtle ways, like prompting applicants to discuss how they overcame such discrimination or bias in their essays.
These administrators have shown that they will not yield on the use of race. In California, voters repeatedly voted against using race, and a task force supported using standardized testing in admissions. Yet, University of California President Janet Napolitano still eliminated the use of standardized tests, and ... top students are still inexplicably rejected.
Exactly.
And while corporations across America began to eliminate their DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) initiatives after President Donald Trump returned to the White House, some in the no-longer-hallowed halls of academia continue the insanity of placing so-called "equity" over merit — which is ironically as racist as can be.
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As Turley suggested, the culture won't change without a significant change in the administrators and staff and offending colleges and universities.
As the old saying goes, "If you can't change the people, change the people."
How so? Increased public outcry and donors pulling contributions and endowments is a good place to start.
