Harvard rated Asian American applicants lower on personality scores than other students, study finds

Harvard admissions officers consistently rated Asian American students lower on “personal qualities” than students of other races, according to admissions data analysed as part of a racial discrimination lawsuit against the prestigious university. A study of 20 years’ worth of admissions data shows Asian American applicants to Harvard scored much better than all other racial groups on measures of academic merit, but worse on subjective analyses of their personal qualities completed by Harvard admissions staff. In fact, the study found Asian Americans had the lowest admission rate of any racial group between 2000 and 2019, despite having higher test scores than every other racial group over the two-decade period.