<p>From my personal experience, the Asian Americans I know who get into Harvard, Yale, Princeton etc., are the qualified ones. I live in a university town with a large population of Asians. This being said, most Asians where I live have parents that generally care about education. The effect of this is that almost all Asians I know are ahead in math, taking many AP courses, have internships/volunteer hours etc. However, the Asians that I know who do this (not all, obviously) tend to do these things because they think that it will get them into top schools. The people I know who get rejected are not genuinely interested in the extracurricular activities that they do. One Asian person I know who got into Harvard did not have a perfect SAT or ACT score, nor did he have a 4.0 or thirteen AP classes. He was, however, known throughout the school for being a wonderfully kind and nice person. </p>
<p>Obviously, there is the other end of the spectrum. My sister was genuinely interested in math and science and did what she liked. She didn’t have the community service hours and wasn’t the president of many clubs. She was admitted to her top choice early admission.<br>
Of course, I do believe that there are better chances for people of non-Asian races. One of my friends (he’s Nigerian, comes from a royal family there) does have a better chance than I do in getting in. This partially based on his race, but he is also smart.<br>
All in all, the best advice I have is to do what you want to, take classes you want to take (not just APs).</p>