California student rejected by 16 of 18 colleges despite 1590 SAT gets court’s approval to pursue bias claims

A California father is calling a recent federal court ruling a major step forward in his legal battle alleging that highly qualified Asian-American students face discriminatory treatment in college admissions.

The lawsuits allege the institutions engaged in “racially discriminatory admissions practices that disadvantage highly qualified Asian-American applicants.”

One of the cases will move forward in part against the University of Washington after US District Judge James L. Robart partially granted and partially denied the university defendants’ motion to dismiss.

The ruling allowed Stanley Zhong’s Title VI claims against the University of Washington to proceed while dismissing several other claims.

The decision also addressed the issue of sovereign immunity.

“We got an exciting ruling from the judge,” Nan Zhong told Fox News Digital. “Effectively, the judge ruled in our favor by denying the university’s motion to dismiss.”

“So, this is a major development in the lawsuit. That means the judge found enough factual allegations to support our allegation,” he added.

Family seeks admissions data

The ruling means the case can now enter the discovery phase, which Zhong said could provide access to internal university records.

“With that ruling, we can now proceed into discovery, request internal documents, internal communication and, most importantly, admissions data,” Nan said.

The family says those records could help determine whether Asian-American applicants were treated differently during the admissions process.

Stanley rejected by 16 of 18 colleges

Stanley Zhong, now 21, drew national attention after being rejected by 16 of the 18 colleges to which he applied despite having a strong academic and extracurricular record.

The 2023 graduate of Gunn High School in Palo Alto had a 1590 SAT score, a 4.42 weighted GPA and ranked among the top 9% of his graduating class.

He had also launched a free electronic-signature startup that was featured by Amazon Web Services.

Stanley was eventually accepted by the University of Maryland and the University of Texas at Austin but chose instead to accept a software engineering position at Google in 2023.

Google hired Stanley after college rejections

Stanley was recruited by Google at a young age after being spotted in coding competitions when he was 13.

The technology company later hired him as a full-time software engineer. According to the family's court filing, the position typically requires a Ph.D. or equivalent practical experience.

The family has cited Stanley's academic and professional achievements as part of its argument that his college admissions results warrant scrutiny.

‘The story is much bigger than myself’

Nan Zhong said his legal campaign is not simply about his son's experience but about what he believes could be a broader issue affecting Asian-American students.

“The story is much bigger than myself; than my son, Stanley; or our family,” Zhong said.

“First of all, I have a younger son, so I don’t want him to face the same problem that his older brother faced,” he added. “I think this is something important we should correct, so my future grandkids won’t have the same problem again.”

Zhong said numerous other Asian-American families contacted him after his son's story became public.

The family spent more than a year examining admissions trends before filing the lawsuits, according to the report.

University of Washington defends admissions process

The University of Washington said it was pleased that the court dismissed many of the claims.

“We’re pleased that the court dismissed many of the claims and two of the three plaintiffs,” a university spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

The university also emphasized the competitiveness of its admissions process, particularly for its Allen School.

“Admission to the Allen School is highly competitive, and the vast majority of out-of-state applicants are not admitted because, as Washington’s flagship university, we prioritize Washington residents for admission,” the spokesperson said.

The university's response did not concede the allegations of discriminatory admissions practices.

For the Zhong family, however, the latest ruling opens the door to the next phase of their case, where they hope access to university admissions records will shed more light on how applications were evaluated.