Colleges that are in need of South Asians...

armaryland17 · 11-03-2009, 04:00 PM

Hi,

I am a South Asian Senior who is looking for LACs that have virtually no South Asian Americans (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, etc.). I say this because my ECs strengths could help pull me and get me into competitive LACs. I am also looking fot top 50 LACs!

schrizto · 11-03-2009, 04:54 PM

I made a thread on this a while ago. I think the consensus was that LACs tend to have fewer Asians than nationally ranked universities, so you might have an easier time getting into one.

armaryland17 · 11-03-2009, 05:02 PM

I know that Asians are not represented enough in LACs, but my question is specifically about South Asians. South Asians are generally different that than Chinese/Japanese Asians in that they are more Culturally tied to their heritage. Also, religion generally plays a larger role in their lives: Many Pakistanis + Bengalis are Muslim and moderately devout, while Indians (those who are Hindus) are also quite devout (some, not all). I just want to know which top LACs are in need of more South Asians (reasons for this are stated in the first post).

schrizto · 11-03-2009, 05:16 PM

I don't think colleges look for applicants of a certain minority for those reasons, TBH. It's overgeneralizing.

twomules · 11-03-2009, 05:18 PM

Try colleges in the midwest: Macalester, Grinnell, Carleton, St Olaf, Kenyon.

Keilexandra · 11-03-2009, 05:45 PM

I don't actually know of any college that distinguishes between East Asians and South Asians. Between East/South Asians and Southeast Asians, yes. I would also disagree that South Asians are more "culturally tied to their heritage," but that is irrelevant to this thread.

As for LACs seeking Asian students in general, your best bet is to look in the Midwest and South and/or rural settings. Oberlin is one in the Midwest that hasn't been named yet. Outside the Midwest, Davidson (in North Carolina, which is not DEEP South) has only 4% Asians and would love to increase their % of U.S. students of color. Whitman (small town Washington, Pacific NW) is also actively seeking diversity, including Asian diversity. The same applies, surprisingly, to Middlebury, which seems to have realized that the easiest way of increasing % of U.S. students of color without competing for high-stat URMs is to admit high-stat Asians. Representation is at 10%, but just this year approximately half of their fall diversity visit program attendees were Asian.

BobbyCT · 11-03-2009, 05:57 PM

I agree with twomules and Keilexandra, midwest and southern schools may be your best although Gettysburg College in PA was the first name that popped in my head.

One other possibility is DePauw. They have a strong focus on increasing diversity and attract a lot of "South Asian" students, which are primarily from the India and surrounding countries. St Olaf and Macalester were also excellent suggestions.

teenage_cliche · 11-03-2009, 06:03 PM

In general I'd suggest looking at more rural schools, as well as schools outside the Northeast and West Coast.

armaryland17 · 11-03-2009, 07:29 PM

I thank everyone who has responded so far- your comments are helpful!

Though I would like to point out that I am not a International Student; I am an American Born + Raised in MD. I go to a public HS and my ECs are pretty much tied to my culture (South Asian + my religion). For example, I volunteered as a lab manager at my public library, where I coordinated English Language Acquisition computer programs.

So far these are the schools people have listed:
Oberlin (far shot, I know they are more diverse than the commentator stated)
Davidson (yeah, I'll probably apply there)
Grinnell (I'll need more info on it)
Whitman (too far away)

IBclass06 · 11-03-2009, 07:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by schrizto

I made a thread on this a while ago. I think the consensus was that LACs tend to have fewer Asians than nationally ranked universities, so you might have an easier time getting into one.

More specifically, non-science/math colleges tend to have fewer Asian(-American) students.

Here's an incomplete list posted a while back:

Quote:

Caltech 38.4%
MIT 29.3%
Duke 28.4%
Carnegie Mellon 27.0%
Stanford 24.3%
Harvey Mudd 24%
USC 24%
Penn 21%
Hopkins 20%
Emory 20%

Haverford 11.4%
WUStL 11%
UVA 10.8%
Williams 10.5%
Carleton 10.1%
Middlebury 9.51%
Notre Dame 8%
William & Mary 8%
Oberlin 7.98%
UNC 7.75%
Macalester 7.71%
Trinity (CT) 7.23%
Colby 7.18%
Hamilton 7.17%
Colgate 7%
Vanderbilt 7%
Grinnell 6.88%
Holy Cross 5.33%
Bates 5.09%
Kenyon 4.67%
Colorado 4.56%
W&L 3.45%
Davidson 2.94% (!!!)

I compiled a list of all top LACs and universities with 15%+ Asian-American populations (for your purposes, you may care to avoid them).

Quote:

Originally Posted by IBclass06

UCI 55.3%
UCSD 54.7%
UC Berkeley 48.6%
Caltech 40.0%
UC Davis 37.7%
UCLA 39.1%
U Washington 31.9%
Carnegie Mellon 27.4%
Duke 26.9%
Emory 26.1%
Johns Hopkins 25.7%
MIT 25%
USC 25%
Wellesley 23.6%
Stanford 23.5%
Penn 23.3%
NYU 23.1%
Harvey Mudd 22.4%
Cornell 21.5%
Case Western 21.4%
Brown 20.5%
Northwestern 20.5%
Smith 20.1%
Rice 19.2%
U Texas 18.6%
Georgia Tech 18.5%
Swarthmore 18.3%
Princeton 18.2%
Pomona 18.0%
UCSB 17.8%
Chicago 17%
Yale 17.0%
Bryn Mawr 16.0%
Harvard 16%
Dartmouth 15.6%
Claremont McKenna 15.3%

M's Mom · 11-03-2009, 07:49 PM

You definitely need to check out Grinnell on CC. See the "Why Grinnell" thread. They also offer great merit aid.

Keilexandra · 11-03-2009, 07:54 PM

Is there any reason you eliminated the previously listed schools of Macalester, Carleton, St. Olaf, Kenyon, Middlebury, Gettysburg, and DePauw? I mentioned Oberlin because it still suffers from the "Midwest stigma" among many Asian applications, it is located in a tiny town, and it maintains a diversity visit program advertised to ALANA students (including Asians). Check it out--Multicultural Visit Program (MVP). Grinnell, Carleton, Kenyon, and Middlebury also maintain similar programs, which pay for certain minority students to visit campus BEFORE applying, in fall of senior year.

mahimahi · 11-03-2009, 08:02 PM

Trinity College is one of the only educational institutions in the entire country that have an employed Muslim Chaplain who offers ministry, counseling, teaching, interfaith planning, and student advocacy for students of the Islamic faith and other students interested in learning about Islam on campus.

OP, not sure if you are South Asian and Muslim, but if so, perhaps Trinity College in Connecticut would be of interest. The above paragraph is from their website.

armaryland17 · 11-03-2009, 09:21 PM

Oberlin (far shot, I know they are more diverse than the commentator stated)
Davidson (yeah, I'll probably apply there)
Grinnell (I'll need more info on it)
Whitman (too far away)
Macalester (16 hrs. away, might be a problem for me)
Carleton (also really far way)
St. Olaf (might consider it)
Kenyon (im def. applying to this school! Thanks Keilexandra, I researched a little further and I think this school would be great fit)
Trinity (same as Kenyon)
Gettysburg (my comp. sci. teacher went here, he says its a great but expensive school)
Middlebury (Admin. Criteria is high, will not get in)

I am Muslim and South Asian, and I have found that many of these colleges have MSAs (I know that not everyone is Pakistani + Indian) and South Asian Student Associations. So at least their are sizable groups of South Asians! Thanks everyone, Ill use the list of schools that everyone has mentioned.

Keilexandra · 11-03-2009, 10:15 PM

Mac is 16 hours away by car? Just fly. Took me 2.5 hours to fly from Philadelphia to Minneapolis. Even factoring in airport time, that's not 16 hours.

You do realize that Carleton and St. Olaf are equally far away, being as they're in the same small town?