Asians' chances?

farmmom
Fri, 22 Jul 2005 04:23:01 +0000

“I have read that at Harvard, the number of asian applicants is substantially higher than the number admitted. (At least this was true a few years ago).”

When talking about competitve schools, the number of applicants is always substantially higher than the number admitted, regardless of race. - Agrophobic

Oops, sorry Agrophobic, of course you are right. Let me correct my statement: The PERCENT of asians in the applicant pool is higher than the PERCENT ACCEPTED. At 17% asian at Harvard, you can bet the percentage of asian applicants was far more than 17%. At UC Berkeley which is required by law to be race blind (prop. 209), there are 42% asians. Why would 2 schools in the same vicinity and with similar academic caliber have such a different percentage of asians? One possible explanation is that as a private school, stanford does not have to follow the Prop. 209 law and can, therefore, create a diverse balance in any way they choose to. So if hypothetically 42% of Stanford’s applicant pool is asian and only 24% of the admitted class ends up being asian, the perception is created that it is very difficult to be accepted as an asian applicant. I question whether the disparity in the percentage of the applicant pool and admitted class are as great in other races at Stanford or even more so at Harvard.