{"id":7670,"date":"2026-08-30T09:07:36","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T09:07:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=7670"},"modified":"2026-08-30T09:07:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T09:07:36","slug":"star-california-student-rejected-by-16-colleges-hired-by-google-gets-legal-win-in-racial-discrimination-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=7670","title":{"rendered":"Star California student rejected by 16 colleges, hired by Google, gets legal win in racial discrimination suit"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A father in Palo Alto, California, is declaring a victory in court after a federal judge allowed a civil rights lawsuit alleging\u00a0anti-Asian bias\u00a0in college admissions to move forward.<\/p>\n

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Nan Zhong and his son, Stanley Zhong, filed federal lawsuits against several elite institutions, including the University of California system, the University of Washington, the University of Michigan and Cornell University.<\/p>\n

The complaints allege the universities engaged in \u201cracially discriminatory admissions practices\u00a0that disadvantage highly qualified Asian-American applicants.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of their cases will now proceed in part against the University of Washington after a federal judge granted the university defendants\u2019 motion to dismiss in part and denied it in part.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got an exciting ruling from the judge,\u201d Nan Zhong told Fox News Digital. \u201cEffectively, the judge ruled in our favor by denying the university\u2019s motion to dismiss. So, this is a major development in the lawsuit. That means the judge found enough factual allegations to support our allegation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ruling centered in part on sovereign immunity. Judge James L. Robart denied the defendants\u2019 motion to dismiss Stanley\u2019s\u00a0Title VI claims\u00a0against the university while dismissing several other claims.<\/p>\n

The University of Washington Board of Regents sent Fox News Digital a statement in response to the ruling.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re pleased that the court dismissed many of the claims and two of the three plaintiffs. Admission to the Allen School is highly competitive, and the vast majority of\u00a0out-of-state applicants are not admitted because, as Washington\u2019s flagship university, we prioritize Washington residents for admission,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith that ruling, we can now proceed into discovery, request internal documents, internal communication and, most importantly, admissions data,\u201d Nan said.<\/p>\n

Stanley Zhong, now 21, made headlines after he was rejected by 16 of the 18 colleges he applied to \u2014 including top-tier public and private institutions \u2014 despite boasting an elite academic record.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A 2023 graduate of Gunn High School in Palo Alto, Stanley scored a 1590 out of 1600 on the SAT (99th percentile), held a 4.42 weighted GPA, ranked in the top 9% of his graduating class and had launched a free e-signing startup featured by Amazon Web Services.<\/p>\n

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Shortly after the college rejections, Google hired Stanley as a full-time software engineer in a position that his family\u2019s court filing says typically requires a Ph.D. or equivalent practical experience.<\/p>\n

Stanley was first scouted by the tech giant in coding competitions when he was just 13 years old.<\/p>\n

The family spent over a year researching admissions trends before filing the lawsuits, concluding that anti-Asian bias remains a systemic issue despite recent court precedents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe story is much bigger than myself; than my son, Stanley; or our family,\u201d Zhong told Fox News Digital. \u201cFirst of all, I have a younger son, so I don\u2019t want him to face the same problem that his older brother faced. I think this is something important we should correct, so my future grandkids won\u2019t have the same problem again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zhong added that, since taking their battle public, dozens of families across the country have reached out to share similar experiences.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\u201cAfter the story came out, we received a lot of communication from other Asian American families telling us about their story, telling about how highly qualified Asian American students were rejected left and right,\u201d Zhong said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, this is a large-scale issue, and I think of it as an issue that\u2019s been around for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spokespersons for the University of California system have previously denied the allegations, maintaining that its admissions policies strictly comply with state and federal laws prohibiting\u00a0race-conscious decisions.<\/p>\n

Stanley Zhong was accepted at the University of Maryland and the University of Texas-Austin but decided to take a job offer as a software development engineer at Google in the fall of 2023 instead.<\/p>\n

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A federal judge has allowed Stanley Zhong’s anti-Asian bias lawsuit against the University of Washington to proceed to discovery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7669,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-news"],"yoast_head":"\nStar California student rejected by 16 colleges, hired by Google, gets legal win in racial discrimination suit - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=7670\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Star California student rejected by 16 colleges, hired by Google, gets legal win in racial discrimination suit - 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