Atypical Asian?

tj1994
Sun, 18 Dec 2011 12:31:01 +0000

Hello Moonpie1! I understand your concern and hope I can help with some information :)

Let’s remember that schools want to maintain a set number of people of different ethnicity in their undergraduate class. Harvard has consistently maintained around a 20% Asian student body. However, this doesn’t mean we (Asians) are discriminated against. I remember a post earlier on the discussions thread that showed that acceptance rate by ethnicity, including for URMs, was about the same as the acceptance rate for the whole group. Now, this also hints that we are usually compared with other Asians for admissions and as you know, competition is stiff amongst Asians especially in academics… This is where your question comes in. How do you stand out?

Typically, the reason why piano and math club don’t stand out, is not because you are Asian. It’s because many people don’t go anywhere with them, White, Black, Asian alike. However, how many people play multiple sports on a varsity level? How many people can successfully play not only piano, but four or five other instruments? It’s all about the amount of time you put into something. Sure go ahead and play the piano starting at the age of two. But if you are playing from that early, college admissions would like to see some international recognition for sure. Play the stereotypical Asian sport of tennis? Go ahead and continue with it, but place at state to show that you truly are an athlete. At the end of the day, the way to stand out is by excelling in anything you do. You can be an anomaly, but being bad at being different is a lot worse than being better than everyone who does what you do.

Just my 2 cents. Hope I helped you!

However,