Chinese-Americans Held to Higher Standard

Mathematician, control theorist, and retired Harvard professor, Dr. Larry Yu-Chi Ho moved around a lot as a child, following his Nationalist Army (Guomindang) father to various places in the interior of China during WWII. (See post one.) At the end of the war, Larry and his families escaped to Taiwan. When he graduated high school at age 15, he came across the Pacific to attend MIT.  He met many helping hands along the way. (See post two and three.) He graduated, found a research position in one of the first-ever washing machine companies, and won the immigration lottery. (See post four.)

Larry and Sophia, 1959

Four years after he started doing research for Bendix, Larry decided to go back and get his doctorate. He was accepted at Harvard, and remembers being one of a few Chinese back then.

“Of course, nowadays, the Chinese-American students in top schools are way above the population average (of about 6%). Harvard is about 18% (Asian) last time I checked .”

He said that Harvard has been sued twice for discriminating against Asian students, and holding them to a higher standard than anyone else to get admitted. He admitted this was true.

“It’s a fact. I served on the Admissions Committee for both graduate and undergraduate. I know they have to jump a higher threshold.”

Yet, while he admits this negative bias takes place, he thinks that only looking at test scores isn’t the way to go.  “You want to work towards diversity of the student population. There are many dimensions. So having a perfect SAT score is only one of the 20 factors.”

Larry doesn’t agree with the students filing the lawsuit. “I think there are so many ways in the US to succeed… But Chinese think they have to get their kid into Yale or Harvard or Princeton.”

Still, Larry was fortunate to get into Harvard, and that top education influenced the rest of his career. 

“I got a graduate degree in Applied Maths, and stayed on. I was one of the few to stay on and become faculty. I was there for 45 years. I taught applied maths and engineering.”

Along with being tenured, he received many honors. In 1987 he became a member of the National Academy of Sciences and Engineering, the ultimate honor for a scientist. Later, he was invited to be a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Science. 

"I’ve gotten all the highest honors in my profession.”

(To be continued. Next: Influencing MIT of China)