At only 13 years old, he received a job offer to work a PhD-level job at Google. Stanley Zhong, a 19 year old high school graduate from Gunn High School with a 4.42 weighted GPA, an unweighted 3.97 GPA, and a whopping 1590 SAT score, had a very bright future ahead of him. He currently has stepped forward with his career, years later, accepting that job offer and now as a full-time software engineer. You could even say he’s a young Einstein as he’s now placed in the top 2,000 test-takers out of over 2 million students who take the SAT annually. He’s also tutored kids in coding and founded his own document-signing startup.
After having a very academically driven beginning, he decided it was time for the next step in his career – going to college! However, after submitting his applications, the colleges from which Zhong was rejected from include the following: MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, UCSB, UC Davis, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Cornell University, the University of Illinois, the University of Michigan, Georgia Tech, Caltech, the University of Washington, and the University of Wisconsin. 5 of which are UC schools. Zhong was only admitted to the University of Texas and Maryland.
Taking Legal Action
Although there were universities that had pre-existing laws banning racial discrimination in admission, the Zhongs have ultimately decided to sue against the University of California and five of their campuses, as well as the U.S. Department of Education on February 11th of this year. Zhong and his father, Nan Zhong, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California alleging the University of California illegally engages in racial discrimination in its admissions.
The United States Supreme Court has also ruled that it is unconstitutional for a University to take into account an applicant’s race in its admission process. In Regents of University of California v. Bakke (1978), it reads “…the Supreme Court ruled that a university’s use of racial ‘quotas’ in its admissions process was unconstitutional, but a school’s use of “affirmative action” to accept more minority applicants was constitutional in some circumstances.” With all of this information in mind, here’s what Zhong’s father had to share…
“What we’re trying to get out of this is a fair treatment for future Asian applicants going forward, including my other kids and my future grandkids. First of all, in addition to Stanley, there are a lot of Asian American students who actually contacted us about their college admissions stories. How they were rejected by UCs, despite their outstanding qualifications, similar to Stanley’s. Evidence number two: we have collected evidence that the UC is using race, in clear violation of the law, in faculty hiring. And to the degree that it’s not only using it, but they’re also knowing it’s illegal, and they’re also hiding the evidence of using it. Evidence number three: we also looked at some of the limited available public data, and there’s a clear suppression of Asian enrollment, despite the strong growth of the Asian community here in California.” – Nan Zhong, ABC7 News.
ABC7 News reached out to UC for a response on the whole situation. This is what they had to say…
“The University of California has not been served with the filings. If served, we will vigorously defend our admission practices. We believe these to be meritless suits that seek to distract us from our mission to provide California students with a world class education. Since the consideration of race in admissions was banned in California in 1996, the University of California has adjusted its admissions practices to comply with the law. We stand by our admission policies and our record of expanding access for all qualified students. The UC undergraduate admissions application collects students’ race and ethnicity for statistical purposes only. This information is not shared with application reviewers and is not used for admission.” – Rachael Zaentz, Senior Director of Strategic and Critical Communications in the Office of the President, who issued this statement, ABC7 News.
Here’s What DMHS Had to Say…
“It is so sad that he got rejected after all of his hard work, he should win this lawsuit.” – A Highlander here at DMHS.”I think is it insane how he worked very hard to try and make it somewhere and still ended up being denied based off of something that should not even matter. It really put the thought in my head that will the work I do now and the GPA I try to manage might not even factor into the schools I apply for. It’s scary because I want to know for sure that I have these schools that will back me up not only for just my grades but also my identity. Identity is such an important part of people that in this situation it shows how to this day there are people who will base their opinion on you on the fact of your identity. This is a big problem in general, just giving people more of the reason not to want to try for what they want to achieve.” Another Highlander shared.
“Affirmative action has been banned for this admissions cycle by a a decision by SCOTUS and it is disappointing to see, clearly, high achieving students still use this as a blaming point for their rejections. MIT has famously not had race considered in their process long before the court’s decision. I truly believe that there is more to the students rejections than their race; in a time where college admissions are more competitive than ever, a high sat or gpa simply does not suffice. I, an Asian student who will be going to one of these “top” universities, have noticed a trend in our community with students undermining others success or blaming their failures on affirmative action and DEI, when the truth is that affirmative action actually helps our community – weeding out legacy students.” – A Highlander elaborated.
“As a person of color, I find it really unfair that universities will base their decisions off the ethnicity of a person. It’s really disappointing that they focus more on the color of your skin and where you come from than the intelligence you’re willing to show.” – Milary Mahonès, a student here at DMHS explained.
“Colleges and Universities gives out a lot of need-based scholarships, and you shouldn’t blame that for not getting in. Just because of your high SAT, GPA, or test scores, does not mean you will easily get in. That is why extracurriculars and passion-projects are very important – it makes you stand out to the other applicants, and shows why you should go to that college and why you are important and needed there. He just wasn’t good enough.” A Freshman here at DMHS shared.
“I am not a political person. I just say what I think. I don’t know much about DEI; I just know that I would not want to be hired because of the color of my skin. I want to be hired or given opportunities because of my credentials, my experience, my education, and my competence. ” – Ms. Esqueda, a teacher here at DMHS shared.
After learning more about the lawsuit and understanding where the Zhongs stood, what are your opinions on this matter? Do you believe nowadays students need to be more involved in sports and extracurriculars in order to be accepted by their dream college and university? Do you think legal action is the best way to combat perceived biases in college and university admissions Thank you for following along and do not forget to click the comment button on the right-hand side to share your opinions and critiques on this matter! Tune in for more opinion-based articles.
