This is different at every school, and I've never heard of the system you described.
The two grad schools I've gotten a 'behind-the-scenes' look at work like this:
- a team of 3 will review applications
- the applications are split into 3 piles, one pile each
- they rank their pile in order
- the group reconvenes, and they make an argument for their favorites
The one prejudice I've heard of involves the reputation of your undergraduate school. If you weren't from a top-tier place, it would be tough to get onto the top of certain professors' piles.
That part sucks, but I can't corroborate your account of race-based admissions at all. I should also mention that I'm specifically talking about admissions to a graduate research program.
Of course, he's out of California and you're in Canada where the admissions process is different (closer to the UK system). This is the sort of thing he's talking about:
"African-American applicants with SAT scores of 1150 had the same chances of being accepted as white applicants with 1460s and Asian applicants with perfect 1600s"
I'm not sure if that necessarily translates into graduate studies, but I'd guess that it does.
The two grad schools I've gotten a 'behind-the-scenes' look at work like this:
- a team of 3 will review applications
- the applications are split into 3 piles, one pile each
- they rank their pile in order
- the group reconvenes, and they make an argument for their favorites
The one prejudice I've heard of involves the reputation of your undergraduate school. If you weren't from a top-tier place, it would be tough to get onto the top of certain professors' piles.
That part sucks, but I can't corroborate your account of race-based admissions at all. I should also mention that I'm specifically talking about admissions to a graduate research program.