are colleges racist?

[DHS2012]

the questions a bit harsh however i do want to address this issue. how come acceptance rates for asians are low? do colleges have something against asians just cause they study hard to get into college?

[notanengineer]

The only thing they have against Asians is that so many of them are qualified, so if they accepted them only based on merit they would decrease the university's racial diversity.

[limabeans]

Oh there's a long discussion about this. long, long discussion. I think the problem is not that colleges keep down the Asian acceptance rate, it's that they try to keep a balance. Think over-represented. The question is "what is the right balance in terms of diversity?"

ETA: I'm glad I'm not trying to decide this, but I'm sure that's what colleges are trying to figure.

[JoJoBear]

...this question...seriously??!


I LOL'd

[MisterK]

Where's mini?

It's been 15 minutes, and he hasn't shown up yet to ask "What do you mean by Asian?", followed by a list of twenty or so subcategories.

[Lemaitre1]

Here in California, since the passage of Proposition 209 which banned the consideration of race or ethnicity in admissions for public universities, at the most selective and prestigious campus of the University of California system, UC Berkeley, the percentage of the student body made up by Asians has grown to 45% of the total while African American and Hispanic students have practically disappeared from the school. There are considerably more Asian students than White students at UC Berkeley. The Ivies probably have no problem with Asian representation in their student bodies representing the percentage of Asians in the general population. In fact they can probably live with a certain amount of overrepresentation by Asians, but it is very unlikely they are prepared to see Asians making up half their student bodies.

[hahalolk]

Cool story bro!

[socaldad1]

back in October, I went with my son on to visit UCLA. We took the tour which lasted about 2 hours. It was probably one of the weaker tours we had been on compared to other schools we had been to. This was back on Oct, so class was already in session. I have to say that I was shocked to see the high % of asian students and I only saw one african american student the entire time I was there. As a parent, I came away from the visit NOT wanting to send my son to UCLA as to me this does not reflect the real world and what he would expect entering the workplace after grad. When we got home, I found a story on la times that said that the incomming freshman class at UCLA had only 7 african american students.

[shravas]

i do want to address this issue. how come acceptance rates for asians are low?

Do colleges even post admissions rates by race? I know that one time I came across such data for MIT, Asians actually had the highest acceptance rate.

[emory83]

^they dont have admission rates for different races but you can see the % of each race in the school. considering the % of asians in us vs their % in top 10 schools, it's actually not that bad.

[Schmaltz]

"at the most selective and prestigious campus of the University of California system, UC Berkeley, the percentage of the student body made up by Asians has grown to 45% of the total while African American and Hispanic students have practically disappeared from the school."

Affirmative Action proponents try to convince people that it gives countless black and Hispanic students an opportunity to go to college, and without AA these same students would be unable to attend college at all. Which is complete BS. Those students would simply attend colleges that are slightly easier to get into. The black and Hispanic students who don't get into Berkeley or UCLA still have dozens of other public college options in California.

[sorghum]

In theory, colleges want 'diversity' to broaden the range of experiences and insights assembled in one place to think about things in new ways.

In practice, its all about race.

[ucbalumnus]

Originally Posted by sorghum

In theory, colleges want 'diversity' to broaden the range of experiences and insights assembled in one place to think about things in new ways.

In practice, its all about race.

Not quite "all", though a large part of it may be. At many highly selective holistic admissions schools, many Asian American applicants look too similar to each other in other ways (as well as race/ethnicity). For example, being from a major metropolitan area in California or New York, with primary extracurricular activities of piano or violin and math club, etc. (see Amy Chua's list of activities specified for her daughters to get an idea of what is popular).

[ucbalumnus]

Originally Posted by socaldad1

When we got home, I found a story on la times that said that the incomming freshman class at UCLA had only 7 african american students.

University of California: StatFinder says that for 2008-2009, UCLA admitted 454 out of 2,828 African American freshmen applicants, of which 231 enrolled as freshmen. This was 4.9% of the 4,740 total freshmen enrolled for that year.

[JeSuis]

I think it's fine that the UCs have a high percent of Asians. Although I'm not Asian, I'd hate for my hard work not to pay off simply because my ethnicity tends to be more driven.