The Zhongs have filed a lawsuit against UC Berkeley and several other schools over “discriminatory admissions practices that disadvantage highly qualified Asian American applicants”, seeking punitive damages.
According to the lawsuit, the younger Zhong was offered a PhD-level position as a software engineer at tech giant Google despite his multiple university rejections.
The US Justice Department is also investigating allegations that UC Berkeley and three others in California discriminated based on race in their admissions – a practice that the Supreme Court ruled was illegal two years ago.
The Zhongs decided to sue the universities that rejected Stanley in states that had pre-existing laws banning racial discrimination in admissions.
Nan Zhong told CNA: “Asians are the fastest growing ethnic group in California, but Asian enrolment in the selective UC campuses is actually trending down. So, between the two, there’s a gap they have to explain to us.”
According to the US’ National Center for Education Statistics, Asians attend college at a higher rate than any other ethnicity in the country.
“We thought this was too weird a case which defies common sense, so we shared it with a local parent group on WeChat,” added Nan Zhong, referring to the popular Chinese messaging and social media application.
“Within 24 hours, to our surprise, it just circulated around the entire country.”
The University of California has since defended its admissions practices in the face of the lawsuits, saying that they are legal.
Amid mounting pressure from Washington, universities have become an important front in the battle over DEI – with the Trump administration’s actions threatening to reshape American education at every level.
