So I was talking to a friend about Lafayette College and my friend said don’t go because it’s a white college.
I’m just wondering what are the pros and cons of attending a white college. Lafayette has over 70% white and only 3.4% Asian. I am Asian and my High School has 64% white.
Thanks!
These stats seem to bother your friend. Why do you care? America is about 70% white.
It really depends upon the school and the person. There is an informative thread here on CC about how challenging it is to be an Asian male at Vanderbilt.
My D, also Asian, ended up choosing a top-50 LAC in the south that is very heavily white (2% Asian). Her choice was driven by the academics in her areas of interest, her sport, the reputation of the school and the incredibly beautiful campus. But she made several visits, including an overnight, to make sure it was a good fit for her. And she spent time speaking frankly with upper classmen Asian students to learn what their experiences had been in coming to campus. So far, she feels she made a great choice.
Also, if you are considering Lafayette, look at Denison University in Ohio, as well. It is located near Columbus. They have made a substantial effort to increase diversity on campus the past few years. It’s a great school, and they offered some pretty substantial merit money last year.
Edit: Just reviewed some of your other threads. Your stats are OK, but Skidmore and Lafayette are somewhat reaches for you, so you should be sure to include some LACs on your list that are closer to being matches. There are great schools that you should consider putting on your list: Earlham, College of Wooster, Centre, Allegheny, and Juniata are some that come to mind.
I looked up the clubs at Lafayette College here: http://slp.lafayette.edu/student-involvement/clubsandorgs/
They have an Asian Culture Association so it looks like you should be able to meet some other Asian students without much difficulty, however, you probably won’t be able to meet much if any Asian students in your classes (as you probably know).
That is a reasonable issue to look at in your search. An Asian student I know came from an extremely diverse high school to Norte dame and she is hanging out with mostly Asian and Hispanic kids, where her circle was more diverse at home. She said the white people are different there. That is a bit disappointing to hear. She did get to visit her top 3 choices before picking so as to make sure and she felt the best fit at ND even though she is not catholic either. Being Asian may be a bit of an admissions hook for you at a less diverse college.
Thanks so much for ur suggestion. However, I am planning to major in computer science, are any of these schools have strong computer science department?
Thanks
almost all colleges are majority white because, as stated above, most of america itself is white
i don’t think you’ll have problems. not sure about the strength of the above mentioned collees’ CS programs
One way to informally assess the racial climate on a campus is to have lunch in the main dining hall and note who sits with whom. Are the students all clustered by race or do most tables have a diverse mix? You can also use this method to see if jocks mix with non-jocks. You’re likely to see kids from the same team at dinner together because they often come to dinner straight from practice, but at lunch you should see kids who have also connected in their dorms or classes.
N.b., this is not a good test for parent’s weekend, as obviously you’ll see clusters of families.