Research from Princeton University sociologists shows that Asian Americans need SAT scores 140 points higher than white students — when all other things are equal — to get into elite colleges. Asian American applicants are heavily overrepresented among high-achieving students, so the only way we can create balance on our campuses — or so the argument goes — is by limiting their admissions.

Ditto for teenage girls , who are outpacing boys in our secondary schools. As several recent studies have confirmed, high school girls study more — and, not surprisingly, get better grades — than high school boys do.

So it’s also harder for them to get into elite colleges, which want to maintain a gender balance as well as a racial one.