<p>Nobody eats just rice; you have various dishes with it.</p>
<p>In a free market, competition improves the quality of the products. Affirmative action is basically a protective tariff against Asians.</p>
<p>ellefalloir: going by what you said, why just make the Asians more “cutthroat.” why not the other races too? why not remove affirmative action so asians can compete with the best of every race as well? it will motivate everyone to stick out from the whole group, right?</p>
<p>You really need to tie that EC in if it’s the only EC you have going for you.</p>
<p>Sorry for the late reply, guys! (/sob less than two months until the APs Q_Q)</p>
<p>Anyway…this is proof of the defensive nature some Asians can get. </p>
<p>@leo118: I wasn’t directly referring to Asians when I mentioned the rice part, but people naturally assume… All different cultures eat rice. How do you know I wasn’t referring to Hispanics or even Africans? The “rice” comparison/analogy shows the degree of small-mindedness certain people can get regarding defensiveness of their culture. When I mean by “you can’t have a class of people who eat just rice”, I was referring to the impossibility and utter inefficiency of recruiting people who are narrow minded (and thus receive the short end of a liberal college education). I’m sorry. Rice was a staple food that came to my mind first. I guess the proper analogy would be people who eat only white bread, but my cultural heritage influenced thought-processes (and the fact that I hadn’t eaten lunch) and made me use rice in replacement of white bread. Maybe I should’ve said “people who only eat white rice”, but then I might have gotten outrage about more racial discrimination. (;</p>
<p>@xabsox: Harvard does not need to use strict capitalist philosophy when it has the largest university endowment in the world. Even though it’s true the Ivies, in particular Harvard, wants the best students (who doesn’t?) and has the means of getting them, sometimes the Asian standard of perfection/success is not Harvard’s standard. Affirmative action is a guard against people a) who only want to go to Harvard for the name b) who have been forced to follow strict studying guidelines from a young age by meticulous parents c) who lack a true sense of what they want and yet want to “deviate” from the norm. Nobody can say that Harvard, or any other college, uses Affirmative Action because it’s prejudiced against Asians. They have to be more open-minded than that! (Liberal institutions, man. Liberal and private.)</p>
<p>@neorobie: Asians DO compete with the “best” of other races. They compete with them already… You think that affirmative action should be removed, but you do realize that there is more to life than just competitiveness in college admissions, right? Race is considered a factor in the corporate world as well. Companies have quotas regarding race— if you say that college admissions shouldn’t be race-based, then the job market might as well be blind to everything but your resume.
Eliminating affirmative action in college admissions just isn’t practical. It’s the real world. You have to admit that even after college, you’re going to face “prejudice” no matter what race you may be. If Asians hate Harvard based on how “skewed” its views are based on affirmative action, then they shouldn’t apply to the school at all. (lol. My philosophy is to only apply to a school if you love everything about it…) </p>
<p>As for motivation to be distinguished, you have to realize that “the whole group” does not have the same cultural identity, financial background, and social guidance that you have. Harvard realizes that. Most people realize that. Not everybody was born with parents willing to pay over 2k for SAT tuition. You think it’s unfair for Asians to try harder to be unique, but don’t you think it’s even more unfair that other races may have to struggle to even meet the norm? </p>
<p>People may think that affirmative action is a “disadvantage” for Asians, but they have to realize in the long run it promotes cultural identity and pride. It’s hard keeping up with the high standards, but at least people realize they’re there.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, think what you want. This may just be the naivete speaking.</p>
<p>^ re: disadvantages for Asian Americans: I’m going to rant. Most folks, CC-ers included, only judge “quality” by the superficials found in chance me threads- ie, stats, rigor, and a few showboat activities. Kids forget that holistic admissions needs more than that, including decent essays, great LoRs, some freaking sense of your character and that you are interesting- and balanced. When the tippy top schools review apps, even top stats kids can be ho-hum. (And, lots of LoRs are cookie-cutter, even for top performers. Even if you see yours and think they are super, you don’t know how they stack up.) Some percentage of Asian-Americans may have super stats, but no one group has any set advantage in making themselves compelling admits to a holistic-review school. </p>
<p>And, most of the court attention has been paid to the role of public institutions, not privates. Publics have an different mandate re: serving their populaces.</p>
<p>ellefalloir: “b) who have been forced to follow strict studying guidelines from a young age by meticulous parents c) who lack a true sense of what they want and yet want to “deviate” from the norm”</p>
<p>but people can’t help the families they are born into, it very possible that even without parental guidance people still have the will work hard! and yes I rebelled against my family and joined interesting clubs like Mu Alpha Theta and Rockets and Robotics… wanted life outside studying, right?(at my school, it is very diverse) and it wasn’t until posts on CC and when we went to compete(for mu alpha theta…) before i realized these were so-called “asian activities”. oops. not that im going to quit, love those activities very much.</p>
<p>and actually I used to believe there was no affirmative action, everything was equal, it was only on CC, after reading the race discussion(s) and many shared news articles that I changed to dislike affirmative action.</p>
<p>so wow, racial quotas in the workforce is definitely news to me! i thought there would be a law against such things… i remember reading Equal Opportunity stuff somewhere… hmm…</p>
<p>“lol. My philosophy is to only apply to a school if you love everything about it…” I commend you as a tolerant person! heh heh wish i could have the same philosophy but for me there’s always some cons to everything and its about weighing the pluses and cons. 
cost especially</p>
<p>"As for motivation to be distinguished, you have to realize that “the whole group” does not have the same cultural identity, financial background, and social guidance that you have. Harvard realizes that. Most people realize that. Not everybody was born with parents willing to pay over 2k for SAT tuition. You think it’s unfair for Asians to try harder to be unique, but don’t you think it’s even more unfair that other races may have to struggle to even meet the norm? "</p>
<p>heck my parents never paid over 2k for SAT tuition and never would. and maybe because im from a super diverse school and im not sure what you see but I know there are kids of different races(not asian) with parents that would freak over a b, well-off and pressured to do well, and do so. i see kids of different races even without family support have the same drive for working hard and excel. and there are too plenty of asians with parents that don’t stereotypically care as much and neither do the kids. </p>
<p>ellefalloir: I’m open to what anyone says… and maybe i have been a little brainwashed my that discussion on CC but there’s some points I don’t understand.</p>