<p>The American Conservative article is fascinating. JHS, for your reference, the most recent stats: Harvard cited 21% of its class as Asian-American ([Harvard</a> College Admissions § Applying: Statistics](<a href=“http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/apply/statistics.html]Harvard”>http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/apply/statistics.html)), and Penn is 20.8% ([Incoming</a> Class Profile - Penn Admissions](<a href=“http://www.admissions.upenn.edu/apply/incoming-class-profile]Incoming”>http://www.admissions.upenn.edu/apply/incoming-class-profile)). I couldn’t find Princeton’s data. Add on those that don’t self-report, and, as you said, probably around 25-30% of the class would be the “real” percentage.</p>
<p>On the other hand, Berkeley reports 43% of their class as Asian (<a href=“http://opa.berkeley.edu/statistics/UndergraduateProfile.pdf[/url]”>http://opa.berkeley.edu/statistics/UndergraduateProfile.pdf</a>)
and CalTech, according to the article, has about 40% of the class as Asian. This means that, in terms of “real” percentage, close to 50% of the classes at both these schools are of Asian background. </p>
<p>At Berkeley and CalTech, as the number of Asians have increased markedly in society, the number of asians present at these schools have increased as well. At Harvard and Penn, at least, there has been a slight uptick (especially of late), but it really isn’t as dramatic. There does seem to be, with a bit of variation, a “cap” (self-imposed or otherwise) on the self-reports each year at around 20%.</p>