Hacker News Reader

I noticed the article compared Harvard's admission percentage to Caltech (19% to 25%). If you're going to make that comparison it's worth noting that a significant fraction of Harvard students are athletes and the admissions criteria for athletes is different. Anecdotally, Asians seem to be under represented in athletics, so that probably explains part of the difference.

View on HN

That's 1992. "In 2013 Harvard made 18% of its offers to Asians, while CalTech admitted 42.5% Asian students." "Though the number of Asians applying for admission [to Harvard] has increased, the percentage of offers has barely budged."

Funny, what you say about Asians and sports "anecdotally" is exactly what was said to "explain" discrimination against Jews in the Ivy League.

Ah okay, thanks for pointing that out. I just skimmed the article. Also, I don't think that I suggested that explains all of it, and it certainly doesn't in the case where 42.5% of the students are Asian, however, it is worth noting that Caltech and Harvard admit students for different reasons, and many of Harvard's students are admitted for non-academic reasons.

> If you're going to make that comparison it's worth noting that a significant fraction of Harvard students are athletes and the admissions criteria for athletes is different.

Another significant fraction are legacies.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com