Asian engineer spotted by Google at 13 wins first round in bias lawsuit after being rejected by 16 US colleges
A Google software engineer who was rejected by 16 of the 18 U.S. colleges he applied to can press a racial discrimination claim against the University of Washington, a federal judge has ruled.
Stanley Zhong, a 19-year-old Asian engineer, successfully moved his bias lawsuit against 16 US colleges to the evidence-gathering stage, according to a recent report by Fox News Digital. The lawsuit, filed in February 2025, alleges that the universities discriminated against Zhong, who had a perfect academic record, due to his Asian American background.
Zhong, who received offers from 18 colleges, including Google, was rejected by 16 institutions, including the University of Washington. Google hired him as a software engineer despite his young age, a move the lawsuit claims is contrary to typical hiring practices. The university denies the allegations, stating that its admission process is race-neutral.
U.S. District Judge James Robart found enough factual allegations to proceed with the case, but did not confirm whether discrimination occurred. The ruling allows the Zhongs to access internal university documents and staff communications, which they plan to use with the help of their own legal team and AI tools. This is one of four lawsuits the family has filed in 2025, challenging racial discrimination in college admissions, following the Supreme Court's 2023 ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard.
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