Bay Area teen rejected by 16 colleges, hired by Google files racial discrimination lawsuit
By Kristen Sze
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — The father of a Palo Alto teen who garnered national attention for getting rejected by 16 colleges and hired by Google as a software engineer has filed a new lawsuit on Feb. 11 against the University of California and five UC campuses — UC Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, UCSB and UC Davis — as well as the U.S. Department of Education, for racial discrimination.
“What we’re trying to get out of this is a fair treatment for future Asian applicants going forward, including my other kids and my future grandkids,” says Nan Zhong.
His now 19-year-old son, Stanley Zhong, is a co-plaintiff, along with their group called SWORD, Students Who Oppose Racial Discrimination, comprised of other students and families who feel Asian Americans are often discriminated against in the college admissions process.
Stanley Zhong had a 4.42 GPA from Gunn High School and 1590 out of 1600 on the SATs. He also founded his own document-signing startup and tutored underserved kids in coding. His college rejections and his employment offer from Google became a lightning rod in the national debate over the college admissions process.
Stanley was denied by the following colleges: MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, UCSB, UC Davis, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Cornell University, University of Illinois, University of Michigan, Georgia Tech, Caltech, University of Washington and University of Wisconsin.
He was only admitted to the University of Texas and Maryland.”
Stanley Zhong and his father Nan Zhong, a manager at Google, filed a new complaint in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, alleging the University of California illegally engages in racial discrimination in its admissions process. The use of race was banned by California voters through Prop 209 in 1996 and affirmed in an unrelated case involving Harvard in 2023.
Nan Zhong joined ABC7 News Anchor Kristen Sze to discuss why they’re suing UC now when Stanley is working in a dream job that top university graduates aspire for, what evidence they’re looking at, and what they ultimately want.
“First of all, in addition to Stanley, there are a lot of Asian American students who actually contacted us about their college admissions stories. How they were rejected by UCs, despite their outstanding qualifications, similar to Stanley’s,” Nan Zhong said. “Evidence number two: we have collected evidence that the UC is using race, in clear violation of the law, in faculty hiring. And to the degree that it’s not only using it, but they’re also knowing it’s illegal, and they’re also hiding the evidence of using it. Evidence number three: we also looked at some of the limited available public data, and there’s a clear suppression of Asian enrollment, despite the strong growth of the Asian community here in California.”
The Zhongs’ suit follows one filed on Feb. 3 by Students Against Racial Discrimination, which alleges UC’s use of holistic admissions–meaning non-academic factors, like extracurriculars and life circumstances–diminishes academic merit and hurts Asian American and white applicants.
ABC7 News reached out to UC for a response. Rachael Zaentz, Senior Director of Strategic and Critical Communications in the Office of the President, issued this statement:
“The University of California has not been served with the filings. If served, we will vigorously defend our admission practices. We believe these to be meritless suits that seek to distract us from our mission to provide California students with a world class education.
Since the consideration of race in admissions was banned in California in 1996, the University of California has adjusted its admissions practices to comply with the law. We stand by our admission policies and our record of expanding access for all qualified students. The UC undergraduate admissions application collects students’ race and ethnicity for statistical purposes only. This information is not shared with application reviewers and is not used for admission.”
The Zhongs hope their lawsuit will lead to the opening of dialogue and documents that thus far eluded them. Nan Zhong says he has contacted UC leaders, state lawmakers, and even Governor Newsom’s through a petition signed by 4,000 people to no avail.