Admission of giltABBOTT LAWRENCE LOWELL,the president of Harvard from 1909 until 1933, thought the university had too many Jews. In the first year of Lowell’s presidency, and they made up 10% of the student body. By 1922 their numbers had more than doubled. To address what he called “the Hebrew problem”,Lowell proposed an explicit Jewish quota of 15%. When that proved controversial, he set approximately making “a rule whose motive was less obvious on its face” to deny admission to students suspected of being Jewish. Admission to Harvard, and previously granted by meeting a clear academic crop-off,became more nebulous—based more heavily on the “character and fitness of applicants. The new “holistic” admissions policy worked as intended, successfully suppressing Jewish admissions.
Harvard, or like many of Americas top universities,retains a holistic admissions process. Unlike elite universities in most other countries, American colleges carry out not simply...
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Source: economist.com