The Crimson have a lot riding on their defense in a particular lawsuit (filed by Asian students alleging racial discrimination in admissions). The revealing or keeping of this important trade secret (it’s probably politically correct racism, BTW) will affect other groups of potential students.

“Colleges are looking for a student who, yes, is bright” and has a resume full of traditional accomplishments, like leading the student government or an athletic team, said Mimi Doe, the co-founder of College Admissions Consultants, an independent college counseling service. “But they’re also looking for a student who can add that special sauce to a campus.”

I didn’t make up the sauce part.

Of course, there is some publicly available information about what’s required to get into a top college, such as average standardized test scores and grade-point averages. But meeting that criteria will only get students in the door, Doe said. Harvard could admit several classes worth of students with essentially perfect academic credentials. Of the roughly 26,000 domestic applications Harvard received for the class of 2019, 3,500 had perfect SAT math scores, 2,700 had perfect SAT verbal scores, more than 8,000 had a perfect GPA and nearly 1,000 received a perfect composite score on the SAT or ACT, according to court documents. The incoming class had about 1,600 spots.

The nation’s “top” college has 1,600 spots. And they say the first trait they look for is brightness. So … they have, any given year, several times as many bright applicants as the number of available slots. Surely all of the newbies will be drawn from those highest echelons of SAT and GPA performance, right? There has to be some sauce somewhere amid 1,600 young people.

The secret – like it’s really a secret – is that they draw from outside, from below, the top applicants in search of that very special and very secret sauce. (“Special sauce” is about as lame of cover for discrimination as “tasty ethnic food” is for the wholesale destruction of Western civilization). Given the money at stake, this secret could have huge ramifications. Also, given that anyone even of plain sauce variety can grasp what’s going on, there’s the loss of credibility.

There’s a good reason why Trump is pushing to abolish race-based college admissions.

And, since Harvard have moved onto the incredible and they want sauce, then they should launch a special recruitment drive to get this guy to attend. Just think of what fun and excitement he’d add. I’m sure his SAT is close enough…

Gooseberry Patch.