One difference between today's charge that Harvard discriminates against Asians and the fact that Harvard once did discriminate against Jews is that today's Harvard thinks Asians too soft-spoken, while the old Harvard thought Jews too loud.

Otherwise the situations appear similar. Both cases involve a smart, high-achieving minority threatening to change Harvard's student demographics, and a devious counter-strike by the college's administration to prevent it. Today, Harvard awards many Asian applicants low personality scores using questionable criteria, thereby lowering their overall scores and making it harder for them to gain admission relative to whites, blacks, and Latinos.