” She told me once that a classmate of hers who had become a Vice Chancellor of Admissions at Harvard told her that were it not for Harvard’s “special” (my word) admissions policies every Freshman class would consist entirely of Asians and Jews.”
As a Harvard alum who worked for $18/hour sorting files, this is partially true. There would be some white WASPy types, both by intellect and because they were multi-generational alumni.
My job was to look at pictures (tells you how long ago this was) and decide race, then sort Whites by if they had an Ashkenazi surname or listed activities that were primarily Jewish (e.g., “played basketball at JCC”).
Yes,I should have mentioned that the children of alums were also admitted...regardless of race or religion.