The Asian American Coalition for Education called the report "shocking, disappointing and unconvincing."
PRINCETON -- A group is disputing the findings of a federal report that found that Princeton University did not discriminate against Asian or Asian-American applicants.
The Asian American Coalition for Education called the report "shocking, disappointing and unconvincing."
The compliance review into Princeton stemmed in part from two complaints -- one in 2006 and the second in 2011 -- alleging the school used race or national origin to discriminate against Asian applicants.
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After reviewing 15 years worth of admission data, the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights found insufficient evidence to support both of those claims, according to a letter dated Sept. 9.
The review found that the university uses race and national origin in its admissions considerations as two of many factors and does not do so in a discriminatory manner.
The AACE contends the OCR's investigation relied too heavily on interviews with Princeton staff, whom they said are unlikely to admit they have committed any wrongdoing.
The group also said the report failed to disprove the fact that Asian-American applicants are held to the highest standards, citing research from Princeton sociologists Thomas Espenshade and Alexandra Radford.
The duo found that, on average, Asian Americans have had to score about 140 points higher than a white student, 270 points higher than a Hispanic student and 450 points higher than a black student on the SAT to gain admission into the country's elite schools.
AACE also took issue with the office ignoring the May 2013 complaint from Michael Wang, who claims he was unfairly rejected by Stanford and all the Ivy League schools except for the University of Pennsylvania.
"OCR should have had sufficient time to include his complaint in this investigation unless OCR decided only to review the ones that support your predetermined conclusion," the group wrote in a Sept. 28 letter to OCR assistant secretary Catherine Lhamon.
AACE urged the office to reopen its investigation into Princeton to include Wang's case and all other pending complaints and use statistical analysis to see whether or not Asian-American applicants are held to a higher standard and whether race is a main factor in their rejection.
"This report is a total disappointment to Asian-American communities," AACE chairman Yukong Zhao said. "Based on OCR's flawed methods and unexplainable omission of an important complaint, Asian American Coalition for Education has decided to reject the conclusion of this report."
In Princeton's class of 2019, 22 percent of the 1,322 students who enrolled are Asian-American, according to the school's website. There were a record 27,290 applicants and a 7.1 percent admittance rate.
Cristina Rojas may be reached at crojas@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @CristinaRojasTT. Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.