Stanley Zhong, a 19-year-old from Palo Alto, California, has filed lawsuits against multiple universities, alleging discrimination against highly qualified Asian-American applicants after he was rejected by 16 colleges despite a near-perfect academic record and a job offer from Google, New York Post reported.
Zhong, who graduated high school with a 4.42 GPA and a 1590 SAT score, had secured a full-time software engineering role at Google—typically requiring a PhD or equivalent experience—before completing high school. Despite his credentials, he was turned down by prestigious institutions including MIT, Stanford, UC Berkeley, and Carnegie Mellon. He was only admitted to the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Maryland.
His father, Nan Zhong, expressed outrage over the rejections, saying, “I did hear that Asians seem to be facing a higher bar when it comes to college admissions, but I thought maybe it’s an urban legend. But then when the rejections rolled in one after another, I was dumbfounded.” Convinced that race played a role in the admissions decisions, the family sued the University of California system, the University of Washington, and, most recently, the University of Michigan.
The lawsuits argue that these institutions engaged in racial discrimination against Asian-American applicants, despite affirmative action being banned in California since 1996 and nationally struck down by the US Supreme Court in June 2023. “There’s nothing more un-American than this,” Nan Zhong said. “I don’t really think [these schools] give a damn about the damage they’re doing to these kids.”
University representatives have defended their admissions policies. Victor Balta, a spokesperson for the University of Washington, stated, “The UW stands behind its admissions process, and we have long recognized that our capacity is limited and we are not able to admit some very talented and capable applicants.” The University of Michigan said it had not yet received the lawsuit.
Meanwhile, Stanley has moved forward with his career at Google, where he has been working as a full-time software engineer since October. He initially gained attention from the tech giant at age 13 due to his advanced coding skills. Though he has not ruled out college in the future, he has stepped away from media attention following online criticism of his lawsuit.
Nan Zhong, who is representing the family in court, said he used AI to draft legal complaints due to challenges in finding legal representation. “Lawyers leaning left didn’t want to take the case. And then the lawyers on the right side think that the courts in California [and other states] are going to be too biased,” he explained.
Beyond his own son’s experience, Zhong said he is fighting for broader fairness in college admissions, particularly for future Asian-American students. “My other son is part of the reason we’re fighting this battle. We’re doing this for other Asian kids, including my younger kid and my future grandkids.”
