With just two offers of admission out of 18 schools, Nan became convinced that his whiz kid must have been discriminated against — and decided to take the schools who rejected his son to court.

Stanley Zhong, who ended up taking a PhD-level software engineer job at Google out of high school, is fighting for other Asian-American students who might face the same dilemma — a kid who is perfect on paper but rejected due to his ethnicity. At least, that’s what the Zhong family hopes to prove in court.

Google hired Zhong full-time at age 18 in the fall of 2023. He was offered the Ph.D.-level position as a recent Palo Alto high school graduate — who had been rejected by 16 out of 18 colleges he applied to, according to Students Who Oppose Racial Discrimination, an organization created by his father, Nan Zhong.

Stanley Zhong, a high-achieving student offered a job by Google, faced rejection from 16 colleges. He is now suing for discrimination.