I remember my Harvard application. I did it by hand and you could see the impressions my ball point pen made on the back side of the paper.
This was all pre-One App and FAFSA forms, or any of that. And when I got in as a Filipino kid from San Francisco’s Mission district, the big fat diploma from University Hall had an admissions certificate that was practically a “pre-diploma.”
I talk about Harvard and affirmative action in my one-man play (at the Potrero Stage in San Francisco Jan. 27, Feb. 1 and Feb. 3).
This week, both sides in the Harvard affirmative action trial filed their post-trial amicus briefs. There’s the Students For Affirmative Action, the White organized group of Asian Americans and their Tiger Moms crying foul because their attributes like perfect scores on SATs were not considered good enough for admissions.
The other side, are other Asian Americans, who join in with a coalition of diversity advocates, who say the Harvard process — based on a “holistic” approach which considers race and other factors — does not illegally discriminate against Asians.
As we wait for the judge’s decision, one interesting essay has been published in Quartz by Natasha Warikoo, an associate professor of education at Harvard.
Warikoo suggests Harvard save time, money and anxiety by running a lottery.
