Differentiating myself from others Asians

Applying to College
21

I understand your concern. It may not make a lot of sense to a non-asian, but I think a lot of asian applicants (especially when applying to schools with a high asian population) worry about this at some point. You’re worried about being The Stereotypical Asian.

You know the stereotype: president of the math club, 5 in AP Calc BC junior year, won awards for piano, flute, or violin, (viola or cello if you like to live on the edge) at least a few computer science/engineering related ECs regardless of their major. (which is probably computer science or engineering)

I, personally, avoided this stereotype, not intentionally but because I was just bad at math, had absolutely no musical talent, and can barely operate Microsoft Office. My ECs were theatre, social justice, and french club. I gave myself a pat on the back, thinking my unintentional but definitely not stereotypical application would win me bonus points. I got into my top choice school, but you know what? My “stereotypical” asian friends got into their top choice schools too. My friends who fit the description in the above paragraph got into MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley, Emory, Oxford, Cambridge, Columbia, UW-Madison, UIUC, Purdue, Hamilton, and Trinity. Colleges definitely don’t deny students just because they reflect aspects of a stereotype.

So if your passion lies in non-sterotypical areas, that’s great! Do what you love, get leadership roles or awards in whatever it is you enjoy doing, whether it be golf, swimming, cheerleading, dance, or ice fishing. If you just happen to like playing the piano and you’re really good at math, that’s great! Don’t force yourself to do other things just because you want to look different. Do what you like and what you’re good at. That’s what colleges like to see.

22

@koreanstudent inform me if I am wrong, but are you not allowed to apply to both cambridge and oxford? In the example above your friend got into both.

23

It wasn’t one friend that got into all those schools, it was between several different people! If one person got into all of those schools that would be an actual miracle. Yeah, I have a lot of stereotypical friends.

24

Why does it have to be a “prestigious institution?” That may be part of the problem, and the solution.

25

If you an Asian applying to Ivy’s, Stanford, CMU etc for engineering you are an ORM.
If you are an (male especially) Asian applying to a LAC for Medieval history you are a URM

Apply to colleges where other Asians don’t apply often.

26

@snarlatron the reason I specified ‘prestigious’ is because I am shooting for high, difficult goals, so that I have a very good chance at the less competitive institutions. I am by no means expecting to get into these schools.

27

I really do not want to do Medieval History. I am interested in engineering, but might apply as a math major then transfer. @TooOld4School

28

You could also apply to schools where race is not considered.

29

Like? From what I know, only the UC and Caltech do that.

30

@TooOld4School ^

31

I suspect that the first post may be more accurate. College Navigator shows relatively low (single-digit) percentages of Asians at many of the top LACs, such as Bowdoin, Carleton, Grinnell, Reed, Whitman, Colby, Bates, Davidson, Washington & Lee, Hamilton, and Colgate. It seems much harder to find national universities with comparably low numbers.

32

I’m not sure why everyone is stressing for you to apply to colleges where Asians are underrepresented. Yes, maybe it’ll help your application a tiny bit. But what’ll make or break (or in your case, simply create) your application is your extracurricular involvement and, to a slightly lesser degree, who you are. Or rather, who AdComms see you as. If you try super hard to not be the stereotypical Asian (Not sure about the dog thing? Literally every Asian I know has a dog, and that’s not even remotely an exaggeration), then you’ll seem like an applicant who is trying super hard to not be the stereotypical Asian. Fake, if you will.

Focus on things you like, regardless of what you think AdComms will like. As long as there’s deep involvement, you’ll be fine wherever you end up.

I am also confused as to why you thought that living in NH would help your chances.

33

I gave several examples to preserve anonymity, but would NH and Maine not be advantageous to apply from? I was under the impression these states were underrepresented. @mohammadmohd18

34

They’re not as underrepresented as, say ND or MT.

35

Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, and Washington ban use of race as a factor in college admissions. This does not apply to private colleges.

You can also look on the CDS and see if race is a factor. Surprisingly, it is not used all that often, especially in less selective colleges.

Low population, mostly rural ‘flyover’ states are the states desired for geographic diversity. Low population eastern states are heavily urbanized and send lots of kids to selective colleges. Low population plains and western states send very few (most stay local). That’s why a student from Wyoming will have a huge bump for a NE college wanting to advertise that they have students from every US state.

36

You just need to focus on differentiating yourself from everyone else. Frankly, your race is irrelevant. Plenty of Asian and white kids get into all the top colleges. Bottom line, do your best, present your best picture of who you are as a person. If you apply to a RANGE of schools, you will get in to at least one of them. Even if you are from N Dakota, you still aren’t getting into Stanford if you don’t have the right qualifications.

37

“I suspect that the first post may be more accurate. College Navigator shows relatively low (single-digit) percentages of Asians at many of the top LACs, such as Bowdoin, Carleton, Grinnell, Reed, Whitman, Colby, Bates, Davidson, Washington & Lee, Hamilton, and Colgate. It seems much harder to find national universities with comparably low numbers.”

^This.

You will be a URM at LACs.

My son is Asian (adopted from Korea) and was accepted at every school where he applied with a 30 ACT 3.8 unweighted GPA and not one AP (just honors.) He went to Bates.

38

The good thing about the suggested LACs would be that while you might be relatively under-represented in their applicant pools, their actual percentage of Asian students (typically ~7%) would still reflect the inherent diversity of the U.S. population (~6% Asian).