Rejected by 16 colleges, hired by Google. Now he's suing some of the schools for anti-Asian discrimination

Stanley Zhong had a 4.42 grade point average, a nearly perfect SAT score, had bested adults in competitive coding competitions and started his own electronic signing service all while still in high school. When it came time to apply to colleges, Zhong's family wasn't overly concerned about his prospects even amid an increasingly competitive admissions environment. But, by the end of his senior year in Palo Alto in 2023, Zhong received rejection letters to 16 of the 18 colleges where he applied, including five University of California campuses that his father had figured would be safety schools. "It was surprise upon surprise upon surprise, and then it turned into frustration and, eventually, anger," his father, Nan Zhong, told The Times in a recent interview. "And I think both Stanley and I felt the same way, that something is really funky here."