Harvard suggests admission process a ‘trade secret’ as discrimination lawsuit simmers

One of the world's most prestigious universities, Harvard, also has a dark, complicated past. Though the university was founded in 1636, its Medical School only offered admission to its first three black students in 1850, but subsequently rescinded these offers. Then, in the 1920s, its President, Abbott Lawrence Lowell, publicly urged the adoption of a quota system for Jews. Finally, Harvard only allowed its all-female, 'sister' college, Radcliffe, to merge with it in 1977.