<p>I can’t trust “Li’s judgement that he was more qualified than the candidates from his own school.” How would that 17-18 yo know? These kids have enough trouble pulling together their own apps, much less analyzing each other.<br>
He can point to his scores, maybe he thought his EC choices were superior- but not how a stranger/adult would respond to his package.</p>
<p>But back to Espenshade, from an interview with the Princeton News Service: *People may read this and want to say, “Oh, because I’m Asian American, my SAT scores have been downgraded.” That is not really the way to interpret these data. Many times people will ask me, “Do your results prove that there is discrimination against Asian applicants?” And I say, “No, they don’t.” Even though in our data we have much information about the students and what they present in their application folders, most of what we have are quantifiable data. We don’t have the “softer” variables – the personal statements that the students wrote, their teacher recommendations, a full list of extracurricular activities. Because we don’t have access to all of the information that the admission office has access to, it is possible that the influence of one applicant characteristic or another might appear in a different light if we had the full range of materials. *</p>