Harvard’s race-conscious admission process, though “not perfect” does not constitute unconstitutional discrimination, a federal Judge ruled Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Allison D. Burroughs ruled against Asian-American students who’d charged systematic discrimination. Her decision praised the importance of creating a diverse Student body and said it couldn’t be done without taking account of race.

Students for Fair Admissions will appeal the decision. The case is expected to go to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Plaintiffs argued that Asian-American applicants need higher grades and test scores than whites, blacks or Hispanics to gain admission to Harvard.

The subjective “personal rating” was key to the case: Asian-American students consistently receive a lower ‘‘personal rating’’ than whites, despite doing as well as whites in alumni interviews.

They’re seen as hard-working nerds, while whites are rated higher on personality traits such as “likability,” “helpfulness,” “integrity,” and “courage.”

“Although the statistics perhaps tell ‘what,’ they do not tell ‘why,’ and here the ‘why’ is critically important,” Burroughs wrote. She suggested bias training for admissions officers.

Although Asian-American applicants earn higher test scores and grades than other racial and ethnic groups, “most Harvard students from every racial group have a roughly similar level of academic potential,” the judge wrote.

Harvard doesn’t admit the best students, writes Tyler Cowen in Bloomberg. “Wealth and family connections play an outsized role in determining who gets a chance at attending Harvard and … attaining additional wealth and family connections.”

More than 43 percent of whites admitted to Harvard are recruited athletes, legacy admissions, applicants on the “dean’s interest” list (children of the wealthy and powerful) and children of Harvard faculty and staff, concludes a recent study of Harvard’s admissions practices. It’s called ALDC. The authors estimate that three quarters of those would have been rejected if not for their ALDC status.

So middle-class whites and Asian Americans don’t have much chance of getting in.