As NovaX describes, “holistic” admissions had very ugly roots. It was specifically instituted as a way to limit Jewish admissions. Oddly enough, Harvard presid

As NovaX describes, “holistic” admissions had very ugly roots. It was specifically instituted as a way to limit Jewish admissions. Oddly enough, Harvard president A. Lawrence Lowell justified the policy as a way to avoid antisemitism, reasoning that too many admitted Jews could provoke antisemitic sentiment. This was the same President Lowell who tried but failed to impose segregation on students. (“We owe to the colored man the same opportunities for education that we do to the white man; but we do not owe it to him to force him and the white into social relations that are not, or may not be, mutually congenial.”) [1] Still, as Judge Burroughs has pointed out, the ugly origins aren’t necessarily relevant to the current impact. [2] It will be interesting to see how well Harvard’s “diverse student body” argument holds up to scrutiny. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._Lawrence_Lowell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._Lawrence_Lowell [2]: https://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2016/09/harvard-discrimination-jews-227842 https://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2016/09/harva...