I can believe Asians are explicitly discriminated against in admissions (and IMO that's unfair). But I can also believe this teen genuinely got rejected from al

I can believe Asians are explicitly discriminated against in admissions (and IMO that's unfair). But I can also believe this teen genuinely got rejected from all 16 colleges and accepted by Google out of luck. Competitive colleges get more near-perfect applicants than admission slots. Extra-curricular achievements are subjective, and admissions don't have much time to thoroughly review them. Ultimately, decisions must involve a lottery, so anyone whose not truly exceptional has a non-negligible possibility of being rejected from a university like MIT (or an employer like Google). It may be that the combined chance of being rejected 16 times is incredibly small, but the independent chance for each college is not. Unlucky for him, but unless there's specific evidence, one of his rejections alone is exceptional (e.g. he applied to a non-competitive college that accepted every other applicant with similar GPA), or there's evidence that any admissions are biased against Asians in general, I don't think the case should have merit. I like to believe that attending an especially prestigious undergraduate university doesn't benefit one much more in the long run than a less prestigious but competent one, and that the most ambitious people can succeed anywhere. At least for this teenager, being hired by Google at 19 is almost certainly far better for his goals and future than if he was rejected but accepted to any of the colleges. Since that acceptance also involved luck, he should be thankful.