April 8, 1990
HE WAS ONE of only two Asian-Americans at his Butler, Pa., high school. But Herald Chen, 20, had grown up in the small blue-collar town with no sense of being "different." Then, in 1988, Chen -- a 4.0 grade point student with an impressive extracurricular high school record -- was rejected by Harvard. He believes he was turned down because of his race.
Herald Chen's question has troubled the Asian-American community for nearly a decade: Deluged by a tidal wave of Asian-American applicants, have the nation's most elite colleges and universities tried to keep their numbers down through secret ceiling quotas and/or racially discriminatory selection policies?
Asian enrollment at Ivy League schools, 1980–2011 - Asian quota - Wikipedia