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- Asian-American Organisations say that Harvard University is biased against Asian Students.
- Asian-American students who secured close to perfect SAT scores were rejected by Harvard.
- The administration says investigation will be done.
According to a complaint filed by four Indian-American organisations and some other Asian Groups, Harvard University is biased against Indian and other Asian students. The admission procedure of the university has been labelled discriminative against Indian and Asian students. Administration led by US President Donald Trump will be investigating the matter.
Following are some of the Indian Organisations that filed discrimination complaints against Harvard:
- Global Organisation of Persons of Indian Origin (Gopio)
- American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin
- National Federation of Indian-American Associations
- BITS Sindri Alumni Association of North India
According to the complaint, many of the Asian-American students who secured close to perfect SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) scores, achieved significant awards and leadership positions and were amongst the top one per cent GPAs (Grade Point Average) were rejected by Harvard University and other Ivy League Universities. Whereas, students of other races were admitted on similar grounds.
To ensure diversity on campus, elite universities in the US have set higher academic requirements for Asian students than those for white students. This step has been taken to prevent high-scoring Asians from dominating the universities. Therefore, admissions are not done solely on the basis of merit.
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According to a study by Princeton University, it was observed that Asian-American students had to score 140 points more than white students in the SAT in order to secure admission to elite universities.
Members of the Indian-American communities said that discrimination should not be done for the sake of diversity as there are many deserving Asian-American students who are not able to take admission in top US Universities despite scoring well in SAT.
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Spokeswoman of the Justice Department, Sarah Isgur Flores, said that the complaint filed by a coalition of 64 Asian-American associations May 2015 was left unresolved by the previous government but will be investigated by the department. She added that the department is dedicated to ensuring that no American citizen faces discrimination in any form.
