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"Charting a hospice admission usually takes between two and four hours, and requires filling out a seemingly endless number of data fields - some of them defying logic. I once had an oxygen-dependent centenarian patient in heart failure seeking admission to hospice. The hospice physician asked for further proof that the patient met the strict standards for hospice admission. It was a weekend and, during the time it took for me to collect that information, the patient died."

"Primary school admission policies come in different phases. The highest priority is given to applicants with blood ties to a school (Phases 1 and 2A). The remaining places go to other applicants in Phases 2B and 2C, with priority given to those who live closest to the school. Without alumni or blood tie connections, the only way to get into an elite school is by moving close to the school. Liang and Warrier found that in order to move within one kilometer of a school ranked 50 places higher, a typical family has to pay a premium of 131,000 Singapore Dollars. This premium costs about 30% more than the average household income, massively pricing out households hoping to send their children to higher-ranked schools. Not only does one have to pay more to get into a 'good' school, Liang and Warrier also discover massive inequalities in Phase 1 and 2A admissions. Grouping housing prices by Clusters, they find that these better schools in more expensive neighborhoods already have a higher Take-Up Rate (TUR, which is the spaces taken up by the end of 2A). In schools like Nanyang Primary School, children of alumni, management, and staff take up 90% of available seats, severely reducing the enrollment chances of people with no connections to the school. This accentuates the privilege of elites in propping up the futures of their children, undermining meritocracy while marching steadily towards 'parentocracy'."

"This study identifies a theoretical mechanism that could potentially affect public university admissions standards in a context of demographic change. I explore how demographic changes at a prestigious public university in the United States affect individuals' evaluations of college applications. Responding to a line graph that randomly displays a freshmen enrollment trend toward a white plurality or an Asian American plurality, white student evaluators lower their minimum class rank standard for admitting white applicants when exposed to an Asian American plurality trend. They also raise the minimum test percentile standard for admitting Asian American applicants. Notably, plurality trend does not affect Asian American student evaluators' minimum standards for recommending admission. Applications differed only by applicant race."

It strikes me as unlikely that Asian American applicants lack extracurricular activities. Though first generation immigrants may come from societies where academic achievement is the summum bonum, they know that in American admissions criteria that non-academic strengths matter. But, you can't manufacture leadership and charisma. Harvard's role is to educate and inculcate the leaders of the next generation of Americans. It is the training ground for our natural aristocracy. Can American society actually conceive of a situation where 40% of those leaders are Asian? I doubt it. Asian Americans are not seen as plausible leaders. Especially by the established oligarchs, who would prefer their own offspring to inherit the mantles of power. Asian males in particular exhibit a "penalty" in thedating game. White females perceive them to be sexually impotent (on average), and for better or worse the opinions of white females as to who is a plausible leader in our society is very telling. If American women won't want have to have sex with them, then why would the broader society see them as creditable leaders?

"It's very easy to throw the prize at the kids who finish the race first, but always look at the incline they faced. That will tell you much more."

Science education was regarded as excellent preparation for motherhood, social work, and teaching.

"Of course, if the elite schools are going to grow, the new activities should be geared less in the direction of wealthy people. As it stands, some of the top U.S. schools (not Harvard) take in more students from the top 1 percent of the income distribution than the bottom 60 percent. More generally, most attendees at top schools come from well-off families, and only 3 percent come from the bottom economic quartile. To create momentum in the opposite direction, imagine a Harvard that admits more than 2,000 or so undergraduates, making further effort to identify individuals from lower-income or other backgrounds that do not describe the typical Harvard attendee. Or Harvard could open a branch for part-time study, and for Harvard certificates, but based in and serving one of the poorer neighborhoods of Boston. Alternatively, Harvard could do more internationally, focusing on the talent from poorer communities. If need be, those initiatives could be named after donors who ponied up large sums of money to help get their kids into Harvard. And some portion of the money could be spent on those newly admitted rich kids too, just to make sure everyone is on board."