Out of the 2,025 students Harvard sent admissions letters to this week for the class of 2019, Chen Lee was the lucky Asian to be admitted.

“I’m speechless,” said Lee, whose family moved from Shanghai to Lincoln, Nebraska, when he was only two years old.



Chen is the sole admit of Asian descent to Harvard College under its new and relatively uncontroversial “Just One Asian” admission policy. Under this policy, the college will grant admission to only one student of Asian descent, no matter how many apply. This year, out of a record 33,029 applicants, 13,210 were of Asian descent. Lee’s chances of admission were 0.0076% compared to the overall admission rate of about 6%. The policy uses the “one-drop rule” to determine Asian-ness.

“We’ve been trying for decades to limit the number of Asian students on campus through indirect means. We’ve reduced the reliance on objective measures such as the SAT and focused more on subjective measures such as well-roundedness,” explained William R. Fitzsimmons, the dean of admissions and financial aid for Harvard College. “But the admissions committee has come to see this approach as disingenuous. So rather than continuing down that path, we’ve decided to take a more straightforward, and we think honest, approach. After all, directness should be a hallmark of the New Harvard Man.”

Fitzsimmons added some historical perspective: “About 50 years ago, we lost the battle against the Jews. We’re not going to let history repeat itself.”

Asian parents across the world were unhappy about the news, but were not dissatisfied enough to protest.

“At least there is one per year,” remarked Jennifer Chang, an outspoken activist in the Asian-American community. “We should be thankful for the opportunity.”



The biggest point of controversy in developing the policy was whether students of Indian descent should be included. It is rumored that an 11th-hour deal between Rajat Gupta (former CEO of McKinsey & Company), Nitin Nohria (dean of Harvard Business School), and Fitzsimmons put Indians in a newly created category of “quasi-Caucasians,” thereby exempting Indian students from the Just One Asian policy.

As for Lee, his future is certainly bright. When asked about his thoughts on entering Harvard this fall, he remarked, “I think I’m going to Yale. I have a feeling I’ll be more comfortable there.”

Keeping up its good-natured rivalry with Harvard, Yale has admitted 5 students of Asian descent this year.