New York Post: Harvard’s gatekeeper reveals SAT cutoff scores based on race
https://nypost.com/2018/10/17/harvards-gatekeeper-reveals-sat-cutoff-scores-based-on-race/excerpts:
A Harvard University dean testified that the school has different SAT score standards for prospective students based on factors such as race and sex — but insisted that the practice isn’t discriminatory, as a trial alleging racism against Asian-American applicants began this week.
The Ivy League school was sued in 2014 by the group Students for Fair Admissions, which claims that Asian-American students, despite top-notch academic records, had the lowest admission rate among any race.
The trial began Monday, and has so far only included testimony from dean of admissions William Fitzsimmons.
He said Harvard sends recruitment letters to African-American, Native American and Hispanic high schoolers with mid-range SAT scores, around 1100 on math and verbal combined out of a possible 1600, CNN reported.
Asian-Americans only receive a recruitment letter if they score at least 250 points higher — 1350 for women, and 1380 for men.
Fitzsimmons explained a similar process for white wannabe students in states that don’t see a lot of Harvard attendees, like Montana or Nevada. Students in those states would receive a recruitment letter if they had at least a 1310 on their SATs.
this chart gives percentage - minorities come from as low as the 68th percentile or only the top third of the class, barely above average but Asians are in the top 20th, and women are preferred over men
https://blog.prepscholar.com/sat-percentiles-high-precision-2016
1600 99.98 perfect
1380 95.5 asian men
1353 94.1 asian women
1310 91.1 whites from targeted states
1100 68.7 Harvard sends recruitment letters to African-American, Native American and Hispanic high schoolers with mid-range SAT scores, around 1100 on math and verbal combined out of a possible 1600, CNN reported.
“That’s race discrimination, plain and simple,” John Hughes, a lawyer for Students for Fair Admissions, challenged the dean.
“It is not,” the dean insisted. He said the school targeted certain groups in order to “break the cycle” and try to convince students to apply to Harvard who normally wouldn’t consider the school.
Fitzsimmons’ office oversees the screening process of about 40,000 applications and whittles them down to 2,000 [5%] acceptance letters that are handed out each year.
....
Adam Mortara, another attorney representing Students for Fair Admissions, accused Harvard of giving Asian-Americans significantly lower ratings for certain personal qualities, such as leadership and compassion, than other races, according to the Washington Post.
“Harvard has engaged in, and continues to engage in, intentional discrimination against Asian-Americans,” Mortara said.
William Lee, the lawyer representing the Cambridge, Mass., school, denied that it engages in discriminatory practices, saying its doors are “open to students of all backgrounds and means.”
“Harvard never considers an applicant’s race to be a negative,”[yet admits that race can be a positive] he said.
The trial, which will last at least three weeks, is being heard by Judge Allison Burroughs — not a jury.
No matter the outcome of the case, an appeal that could reach the US Supreme Court is anticipated. It could shape the long-standing debate surrounding affirmative action, a landmark policy from 1978 that has given mostly African-American and Hispanic students ***an advantage in the college application process.***
Compare this to book which looked at actual affirmative action:
data is from an influential 2009 book in which two Princeton sociologists, Thomas Espenshade and Alexandra Radford, quantified how well you needed to score on your SATs to have an equal chance of admission as someone of another race. It implies that a black student who scores 1000 on her SATs would have an equal chance of admission as a white student who scores 1310 or an Asian-American student who scores 1450.
this largely echos the Harvard invitation scheme:
1600 99.98 perfect
1450 / 1380 95.5 asian men
1450 / 1353 94.1 asian women
1310 / 1310 91.1 whites from targeted states
1000 / 1100 / 68.7 Harvard sends recruitment letters to African-American, Native American and Hispanic high schoolers with mid-range SAT scores, around 1100 on math and verbal combined out of a possible 1600, CNN reported.
From
http://ephblog.com/2017/04/04/asian-versus-black-sat-scores/ shows we don't have 15% blacks until we go down to about 450-500 Math SAT
It also shows at 750-800 there are more Asians than whites
https://blog.prepscholar.com/sat-percentiles-and-score-rankings shows 500 math SAT is about 41 to 49 percentile
Tue 4 Apr 2017
Asian Versus Black SAT Scores
http://ephblog.com/2017/04/04/asian-versus-black-sat-scores/
Posted by David Dudley Field '25 under Michael McPherson, URM Admissions at 6:41 am
This Brookings Report highlights the continuing gaps in performance on the SAT and similar IQ tests among racial groups. Former Economics Professor Mike McPherson also gets a mention. Key chart
:
Several Ephs tweeted out a link to the related New York Times story:
“Race gaps on the SATs are especially pronounced at the tails of the distribution,” the two authors note. In math, for example,among top scorers — those scoring between a 750 and 800 — 60 percent are Asian and 33 percent are white, compared to 5 percent Latino and 2 percent black. Meanwhile, among those scoring between 300 and 350, 37 percent are Latino, 35 percent are black, 21 percent are white, and 6 percent are Asian.Translating those percentages into concrete numbers, Reeves and Halikias estimate thatin the entire country last year at most 2,200 black and 4,900 Latino test-takers scored above a 700. In comparison, roughly 48,000 whites and 52,800 Asians scored that high. The same absolute disparity persists among the highest scorers: 16,000 whites and 29,570 Asians scored above a 750, compared to only at most 1,000 blacks and 2,400 Latinos.
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