Asian-American student who earned near-perfect SAT score talks being rejected by six elite universities
Fox News' Laura Ingraham walks Fox Nation subscribers through a special on 'The Diversity Verdict,' focusing on the experiences of an Asian-American student who was allegedly rejected from college due to his race.
For now, Students for Fair Admissions has but one goal in mind: to bring race-based college admissions to an end.
The affirmative action practice that has allegedly sidelined high-achieving Asian Americans now sits before the U.S. Supreme Court, awaiting a decision that, depending on the outcome, could alter the review process for college applications for the foreseeable future.
Its fate could also weigh heavily on the academic futures of people like 18-year-old Jon Wang, a Florida native who scored a 1590 out of 1600 on the SAT, with a perfect score on the math section. Combined with a 4.65 high school GPA, most would see him as a shoo-in for any elite university.
Somehow, the numbers still weren't high enough.
Asian-American student Jon Wang says he is speaking out against affirmative action policies that discriminate against his race. (Fox Nation/The Diversity Verdict)
"The top-tier schools I applied to were MIT, CalTech, Princeton, Harvard, Carnegie-Mellon and U.C. Berkeley," he said.
Wang was rejected by all of them.
But the rejection letters didn't come without warning. Wang told Fox Nation he talked to friends and school guidance counselors going into the application process, and they all issued a bizarre warning.
"They all told me that it's tougher to get in, especially as an Asian American. I just took it as gospel," he said.
Wang, the child of two first-generation Chinese immigrants, is one of the people behind the plaintiff group taking on Harvard University and the University of North Carolina — two institutions whose race-based admissions practices have emerged at the epicenter of affirmative action practices for public and private institutions.
SIX OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED SUPREME COURT CASES WE COULD GET DECISIONS ON BY JULY 4
The Supreme Court is seen at sundown in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 6, 2020. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
He shared his story in the Fox Nation special "The Diversity Verdict," which is now available for streaming.
Fox News' Laura Ingraham hosts, walking subscribers through the court case that could shape the future of higher education and shift focus to a merit-based system.
JUSTICES HEAR ARGUMENTS OVER AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IN HARVARD, UNC SUPREME COURT CASES
Last fall, the high court heard two cases dealing with the issue, deciding to keep them separate since Harvard is a private institution and UNC is public, creating distinct legal concerns.
At stake in the Harvard case is whether the university violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by discriminating against Asian-American applicants. The UNC case, in contrast, looks at that school's unwillingness to adopt a "race-neutral alternative."
Either of the two cases could overturn 2003 precedent case Grutter v. Bollinger, wherein the court ultimately ruled that the use of race as an admissions factor was not unconstitutional as long as it was narrowly tailored to further the compelling interests of obtaining the educational benefits available in a diverse student body.
But, is getting accepted to college more difficult for Asian American applicants? Ingraham said The Princeton Review, a company that provides college prep and test-taking advice for high schoolers hoping to go to college, agrees with Wang's concern.
A passage from its book "Cracking College Admissions" notes that the high success of many Asian-American students has generated concerns among some schools who allege there are "too many" on their campuses.
The two Supreme Court cases in subject deal with the admissions policies of Harvard and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. (Fox News)
As explored in the Fox Nation special, the book says applying to college as an Asian American could be a "distinct disadvantage" at many elite schools. It also instructs applicants to refrain from including a photo of themselves in their application and withhold optional answers about ethnic background, if possible, as well as to avoid writing admissions essays about the significance of identifying with two cultures.
"I was scared of getting backlash on social media for it [raising awareness about unfair admissions]," Wang said. "For fighting for what I think is a really important issue."
But he found a space among Students for Fair Admissions.
"I gave them my test scores, and then they must've ran the model on that… [they] told me I had a 20% chance of getting accepted to Harvard as an Asian American and a 95% chance as an African American," he said.
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Wang also found a home at the Georgia Institute of Technology — better known as Georgia Tech — a high-profile Atlanta-based university that specializes in engineering and other STEM degrees.
Despite the risk of backlash in his career and elsewhere, he said he's never going to stop fighting for the right cause and for future generations of Asian Americans.
"I feel like, if I'm looking back, 10 or 20 years from now, if I didn't do it [speak up], I'd be pretty upset with myself," said Wang.
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Decisions in Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina and Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College could come before July 4.
Fox News' Ronn Blitzer and Haley Chi-Sing contributed to this report.