Rejection and Triumph
Stanley Zhong had a 4.42 grade point average, a nearly perfect SAT score, had bested adults in competitive coding competitions and started his own electronic signing service all while still in high school.
When it came time to apply to colleges, Zhong’s family wasn’t overly concerned about his prospects even amid an increasingly competitive admissions environment.
But, by the end of his senior year in Palo Alto in 2023, Zhong received rejection letters to 16 of the 18 colleges where he applied, including five University of California campuses that his father had figured would be safety schools.
Initial Reaction to Rejections
“It was surprise upon surprise upon surprise, and then it turned into frustration and, eventually, anger,” his father, Nan Zhong, told The Times in a recent interview. “And I think both Stanley and I felt the same way, that something is really funky here.”
Less than a year later, as a college freshman in Texas, Zhong was hired by Google for a software engineering position that typically requires an advanced degree. Now, he and his father are suing several of the colleges that rejected him.
Lawsuits Against Colleges
Zhong, 19, and his father, Nan Zhong, filed a series of lawsuits this year alleging that the colleges, including those in the University of California system, engaged in “racially discriminatory admissions practices that disadvantage highly qualified Asian-American applicants,” according to the civil complaints, which were written with the assistance of artificial intelligence. The most recent lawsuit was filed against Cornell University last week.
Stanley Zhong declined a Times request for an interview through his father.
Affirmative Action Debate
The consideration of race in college admissions has been a fervent debate in America for decades, becoming increasingly so since the Supreme Court struck down in 2023 affirmative action policies at colleges and universities that use race as a factor in deciding who is admitted. The ruling slammed back previous court decisions dating back to 1978 that held that universities had a compelling interest in seeking racial diversity on campuses and could consider the race of Black and Latino students as a plus factor when choosing among qualified applicants.
Supporters of affirmative action argue that it helps level the playing field for disadvantaged groups and creates a more diverse student body. But those who oppose it say the idea undermines merit-based selection processes and discriminates against qualified applicants.
University Response
In California, the University of California and California State University systems have long been prohibited from using race as a factor in admissions.
“We believe this to be a meritless suit that seeks to distract us from our mission to provide California students with a world class education,” a University of California spokesperson wrote in a statement to The Times. “Since the consideration of race in admissions was banned in California in 1996, the University of California has adjusted its admissions practices to comply with the law. We stand by our admission policies and our record of expanding access for all qualified students.”
Admission Process
While the UC application collects information about a student’s race and ethnicity, those details are only used for data gathering and are not shared with application reviewers or considered during the admission process, according to the UC spokesman.
Asian Americans have long had the highest admission rates among first-year Californians compared with other racial and ethnic groups. UC’s fall 2024 enrollment data, released in January, showed that Asian Americans made up the largest group of undergrads at 36.3%.
Allegations of Discrimination
But Nan Zhong alleges in the lawsuit that a high percentage of Asian Americans enrolled doesn’t prove the colleges aren’t using discriminatory practices. He cites a California state auditor’s report from 2020 that found University of California campuses did not adequately train or supervise the readers who rate applications, potentially creating a risk that their evaluations would be “unfair or inconsistent.”
“Campuses have not taken critical steps to protect applicants from reader bias,” the report states. “They have provided application readers with applicants’ demographic information, including their names, native languages, and birthplaces, which could bias the readers’ evaluations.”
Investigation and Lawsuits
A spokesperson for Cornell declined to comment on the lawsuit.
The U.S. Department of Justice last week said it would investigate four California universities — UCLA, UC Irvine, Stanford and UC Berkeley — for potential “illegal DEI” in admissions, suggesting the schools flouted state and federal laws by using race as a factor when evaluating college applicants.
Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi said in a statement that she and President Trump are “dedicated to ending illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunity across the country.”
College Admissions Process
The college admissions process has long been shrouded in mystery, which can contribute to the concern that some students are held to a higher standard than others, for reasons other than grades and test scores, experts say. Admissions for highly sought after majors such as computer science makes admissions even more competitive with limited space, particularly within the UC system, and surging demand.
“For the UCs, you only need a small weakness to get a rejection,” said Jeffrey Haig, a college admissions consultant in Orange County.
Zhong’s Achievements
While colleges aren’t permitted to look at race, they can look at a student’s background, life experiences and challenges, which can become an important part of an application, Haig said.
Zhong’s aptitude for programming was evident early in his teen years, according to his father. He won second place in the MIT Battlecode’s high school division and advanced to the Google Code Jam Coding Contest semifinal, a global coding competition.
Filing the Lawsuit
In 2019, when he was 13 years old, Zhong was approached by a Google recruiter to discuss software engineering positions at the company. Given his age, the company couldn’t proceed with a full-time position, but the recruiter offered to save his resume for future follow-up, according to an email exchange included in the lawsuit.
In 2021, Zhong launched RabbitSign, an unlimited free e-signing service that his father said stemmed from Stanley’s desire to help provide a cost-effective alternative to other paid signing services when demand surged during the pandemic.
“Those things would be hard to achieve even for professionals,” Nan Zhong said. “And so we thought that for him — with those kinds of credentials — that an undergrad computer science program should be fairly reasonable for him to get into. But unfortunately, that turned out to be not the case at all.”
Lawsuit Details
Zhong applied to computer science programs at UC Davis, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara, UCLA, UC San Diego and California Polytechnic State University. He also sought admission to several private or out-of-state colleges, including MIT, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon University, Cornell, University of Illinois, University of Michigan, Georgia Tech, University of Wisconsin, University of Washington and Caltech.
After the rejections started rolling in, Nan Zhong tried to figure out what had gone wrong. Did his son answer the personal insight questions in an odd way? Was there a glaring issue with his essay? College counselors examined his application and couldn’t find anything that explained the phenomenon, Nan Zhong said.
Conclusion
The case of Stanley Zhong has brought to light the concerns of discriminatory practices in college admissions, particularly against Asian-American applicants. The use of artificial intelligence in drafting the lawsuit has also raised questions about the role of technology in the legal process. As the case moves forward, it will be important to consider the implications of the allegations and the potential impact on college admissions policies.
FAQs
Q: What were Stanley Zhong’s achievements in high school?
A: Stanley Zhong had a 4.42 grade point average, a nearly perfect SAT score, and won several coding competitions.
Q: How many colleges rejected Stanley Zhong?
A: Stanley Zhong was rejected by 16 out of the 18 colleges he applied to.
Q: What is the basis of the lawsuit filed by Stanley Zhong and his father?
A: The lawsuit alleges that the colleges engaged in "racially discriminatory admissions practices that disadvantage highly qualified Asian-American applicants."
Q: What is the response of the University of California to the lawsuit?
A: The University of California believes the lawsuit is "meritless" and that the university’s admissions practices comply with the law.
Q: What is the current status of the case?
A: The case is ongoing, with the most recent lawsuit filed against Cornell University. The U.S. Department of Justice has also announced an investigation into potential "illegal DEI" in admissions at four California universities.
