Teen Prodigy Sues 16 Colleges Alleging Racial Discrimination After Rejections

Stanley Zhong, a 19-year-old with top academic credentials and a Google job offer, claims his rejection from elite schools reflects systemic bias against Asian-American applicants.

Stanley Zhong, a high-achieving student with a 4.42 GPA, a near-perfect 1590 SAT score, and a PhD-level job offer from Google, was rejected by 16 of the 18 colleges he applied to in 2023.
The rejected colleges include prestigious institutions such as MIT, Stanford, UC Berkeley, and Carnegie Mellon; he was only accepted by the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Maryland.
Zhong and his father, Nan Zhong, have filed lawsuits against universities, including the University of California system and the University of Washington, alleging racial discrimination against Asian-American applicants.
The lawsuits claim that Stanley’s qualifications highlight a broader pattern of bias in admissions processes, particularly against highly qualified Asian-American students, despite affirmative action being banned in some states.
Stanley has since accepted Google’s job offer and works as a full-time software engineer, while his father continues to represent the family in court, seeking fair treatment for future Asian-American applicants.