A federal judge has allowed a civil rights lawsuit alleging anti-Asian bias in college admissions to move forward, a development that the father of a student at the center of the case has called a significant victory. Nan Zhong and his son, Stanley Zhong, filed federal lawsuits against several elite institutions, including the University of Washington, alleging discriminatory admissions practices that disadvantage Asian-American applicants.
A federal judge granted the university defendants’ motion to dismiss in part and denied it in part, allowing Stanley Zhong's Title VI claims against the University of Washington to proceed. "We got an exciting ruling from the judge," Nan Zhong stated. "Effectively, the judge ruled in our favor by denying the university’s motion to dismiss. So, this is a major development in the lawsuit. That means the judge found enough factual allegations to support our allegation."
The University of Washington Board of Regents responded to the ruling, with a spokesperson stating, "We’re pleased that the court dismissed many of the claims and two of the three plaintiffs. Admission to the Allen School is highly competitive, and the vast majority of out-of-state applicants are not admitted because, as Washington’s flagship university, we prioritize Washington residents for admission."
"With that ruling, we can now proceed into discovery, request internal documents, internal communication and, most importantly, admissions data," Nan Zhong added.
Stanley Zhong, now 21, gained attention after being rejected by 16 of the 18 colleges he applied to, despite an academic record that included a 1590 out of 1600 on the SAT, a 4.42 weighted GPA, and ranking in the top 9% of his graduating class from Gunn High School in Palo Alto. He had also launched a startup featured by Amazon Web Services. Shortly after the college rejections, Google hired him as a full-time software engineer, a role his family's court filing notes typically requires a Ph.D. or equivalent experience. Google had first scouted Stanley in coding competitions at age 13.
The Zhong family spent over a year researching admissions trends before filing lawsuits, concluding that anti-Asian bias is a persistent issue. "The story is much bigger than myself; than my son, Stanley; or our family," Nan Zhong said. "First of all, I have a younger son, so I don’t want him to face the same problem that his older brother faced. I think this is something important we should correct, so my future grandkids won’t have the same problem again."
Nan Zhong also noted that dozens of other families have reached out to share similar experiences since their story became public. "After the story came out, we received a lot of communication from other Asian American families telling us about their story, telling about how highly qualified Asian American students were rejected left and right," he said. "So, this is a large-scale issue, and I think of it as an issue that’s been around for a long time."
Spokespersons for the University of California system have previously denied similar allegations, asserting that their admissions policies comply with laws prohibiting race-conscious decisions. Stanley Zhong was accepted to the University of Maryland and the University of Texas-Austin but ultimately accepted a software engineering position at Google in the fall of 2023.
