On Feb. 11, Stanley Zhong, former Henry M. Gunn High School student, and his father, Nan Zhong, filed a lawsuit against the University of California and the U.S. Department of Education for racial discrimination, claiming that Zhong was rejected from UC schools because he was Asian.
In 2023, Zhong was rejected from 16 out of the 18 colleges that he applied to, including several UCs and Ivy League schools. Zhong had a 4.42 grade point average, received a 1590 out of 1600 on the SAT, ran his own startup and tutored kids in coding during high school, then was later hired as a software engineer for Google, the company his father works for.
These statistics and extracurriculars, when combined with the college rejection stories of other Asian students, led Zhong and his father to believe that his rejection was race-based — despite the UC system denying the use of race as a factor in admissions. After making headlines, Zhong’s lawsuit has attracted both sympathy and skepticism.
“I would be upset if I were him because he worked so hard throughout school, [and] he seemed to have a really strong drive [and] work ethic,” said senior Isabella Lew. “But going that far to say it was racism was a jump because there was no conclusive evidence that they denied him for those specific reasons.”
Even so, some see Zhong’s story as part of an overall pattern of Asian applicants being rejected from colleges in the name of diversity.
“I’m not surprised [that Zhong was rejected],” said freshman Yui Hayashi. “A lot of the time, colleges are trying to try to show equality, [and] they end up trying to select a certain percentage of each race [to admit] to make them look more diverse. There’s going to be people who are getting cut off because they [can’t fit] into the small range that the college prepares for them.”
According to the UC president Michael Drake, one factor of college admissions is an applicant’s academic achievements relative to the opportunities available at their school. Gunn High School is considered one of these schools that has many opportunities for its students; U.S. News & World Report ranks it as the 14th best public high school in California and reports that 83% of students at the school take at least one Advanced Placement course.
“Everyone [at Gunn is] really focused on APs or the honors classes and getting a good grade,” said Gunn freshman Megan Tarbell. “Everyone expects to go to college, and [to] go to a good college. A bunch of people from Gunn this year got into Stanford [and other] really good schools.”
Given that students at Gunn are reported to be generally high-achieving, some believe Zhong might not have stood out to colleges when compared to his peers or other highly qualified applicants.
“[Colleges] look for uniqueness and passion, instead of just straight-up extracurriculars,” said freshman Naomi Dulac. “There are more than 22,000 high schools in the U.S., and each and every one of those has a valedictorian. Even though you’re really good at [something generic], there will be people that are better [at it] than you.”
Zhong’s lawsuit came days after another lawsuit against the University of California, filed on Feb. 3 by a group called Students Against Racial Discrimination. The lawsuit alleges that the University has illegally considered race as part of college admissions.
The practice of race-conscious admissions is known as affirmative action and has been illegal in California since the passing of Proposition 209 in 1996. In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that colleges across the country could not consider race during the admissions process.
“Having affirmative action is good to some extent, so it allows people to break the cycle of poverty that’s been going on for generations,” Dulac said. “But I do think that it is unfair to have this huge disadvantage … You hear about SAT scores and how a 1300 for a Black student is the equivalent of a 1600 for any [other] American student.”
Some believe race should not be an important factor in college admissions.
“If you focus too much on diversity, sometimes the color of someone’s skin can overlook the quality of someone else’s hard work, and I don’t think that’s very fair to either of them,” said senior Sam Pirzadeh.
The Zhongs allege that the University of California has knowingly violated laws that prohibit affirmative action, and by suing the University of California, they hope to achieve a more just college admissions process for future Asian applicants.
As of March 22, the Zhongs have issued more lawsuits, namely against Cornell University, the University of Washington and the University of Michigan.
