Affirmative Action: Why This Teen Says He Was Rejected by Top US Colleges
8th June 2023
For 17-year-old Rutvij Holay, getting into an Ivy League university mattered.
These institutions represent the elite of the elite in higher education in the US.His parents came to the country from India and “started from scratch”, he said, so that he could achieve the American Dream.
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With a resume boasting high test results, work volunteering for political organisations, prestigious leadership awards and the ability to speak five languages, he entered the admissions process with confidence.
He says he applied to 35 different schools, though Harvard was not one of them.
But, he says with a sigh: “I was rejected from all the Ivy League universities.”Although he cannot provide any concrete evidence, Rutvij believes that admissions officers discriminated against him because he is Asian American.
“The worry that myself and many other Asian Americans have is that when admission officer sees Patel, when he sees a Lee, when he sees a Kim, when he sees any Asian last name, basically the image that comes up is kid just sitting in his school on classes studying away math, and not doing anything that has an impact on society,” he said.