<p>“STEM v non-STEM seems like just another characterization to knock Asian applicants.”</p>
<p>It could work out to have that affect in practice, but a university that has a distribution of faculty in different fields has an imperative to have a student body studying in all those fields, in rough proportion to its available faculty and facilities in each academic area.
For the university STEM Vs. Non-STEM, and even finer distinctions than that, are a necessary resource allocation issue. IMO.</p>
<p>A school whose faculty consists of 2 physics professors and 25 English Literature Professors would not want to wind up with 700 undergrads pursuing physics majors and 3 students pursuing English Literature majors. It makes sense to me that the school should select its students being mindful of their likely areas of interest, vs. its resources.
Otherwise the tail is wagging the dog. </p>