<p>I have taken a couple science courses with 220 plus students in the lectures, and when I count the Latino, Middle Eastern, Caucasian, etc. (i.e non-Asian) students, I usually count around 15-25 students out of around 220-250 students. So like 10-20% Non-Asian. That is crazy! I’ve been in liberal arts classes where its the other way around, but if all UC’s are this way, and they are feeding the healthcare system in CA, there is going to be a huge rise in Asian doctors/healthcare practitioners… like 80-90% rise in California. I’m all for the best grade gets the spot argument, but damn… non-Asian parents should start telling their kids to forget about being doctors. What if affirmative action came back? Asians will have to fill up liberal arts majors. I bet they could be successful in those areas too if they set their minds to it.</p>
<p>“they could be successful in those areas too if they set their minds to it.”</p>
<p>I bet they could. And so could Latino, Middle Eastern, Caucasian, etc. (i.e non-Asian) students in science and engineering.</p>
<p>I don’t think Asians are any smarter. They just work harder, and more importantly, set their priorities straight.</p>
<p>I’m an MCB major and it is not 80-90% Asian, more around 50-60%. And even if it was, who cares? They are in those classes and tend to do well because they work hard not because there’s some sort of “genius Asian gene”. How about if non-Asian parents told their kids to study well in order to become doctors (which I’m sure is what many Asian parents say anyways) instead of telling them to forget it?
Also, I might add that the hard work of many non-caucasian science students is because many of their parents are immigrants and know the value of hard work (this is not to say other parents don’t) and raised them with that mentality (I know mine did).</p>
<p>I don’t really want to comment on the rest of your post (read: get involved in an AA debate), but there are not /thaaat/ many asians in stem classes. Minorities are still underrepresented, and asians do form the majority, but caucasians do form a sizeable portion of the class.</p>
<p>One has to wonder how Asian immigrants are able to rise from rags to riches in one generation.</p>
<p>I don’t think cultural factors can account for such a difference.</p>
<p>^ Well, just remember that many of the Asians who are able to immigrate to the U.S. are already fairly accomplished (often the cream of the crop in their home countries). Many come for college/grad school, so this is already a very self-selecting group considering that only 40% of Americans have an AA/bachelors. Their children tend to be just as accomplished if not more so. </p>
<p>[Educational</a> attainment in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_attainment_in_the_United_States]Educational”>Educational attainment in the United States - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>US immigration tends to favor skilled workers, PhD students, etc. So it is no surprise that a lot of the first generation American children of such immigrants are academically successful.</p>
<p>Hard work. No doubt about it. No one can dispute that. Very honorable. But everyone works hard. Only 24 hours in the day. There’s always someone out there working harder than you. </p>
<p>I’m not even sure what “smarter” even means anymore. As far as priorities go, most teenagers aren’t forcing themselves to study 12 hours a day. It’s usually parents. So that would be the parent’s priorities, not the students, which ultimately carries on once you are in college since that’s all you know by then. Which I can relate to. </p>
<p>My comment about parents was poking fun at this, and the influence parents have on kids majors, of all ethnic backgrounds. My grandma is from China and so I had a dose on one side of my family of the immigrant “mentality” (as dina4119 put it), and STEM majors were definitely pushed over non-STEM. Others just didn’t “pay off”. </p>
<p>Isurus-[…Minorities are still underrepresented, and asians do form the majority, but Caucasians do form a sizable portion of the class.]</p>
<p>This was just a simple observation in a couple classes. Not exaggerated by any means. Try it in your next large lecture. I’ll bet its well above 50-60%. 80% would be safe guesstimate. Just numbers, that’s all. About the minorities phrase, what about 50-60% of MCB (as dina4119 noted) screams underrepresented, when Asian’s are 15% of the state population. That’s nonsense. Caucasians would have a better argument saying they are underrepresented given that logic. Caucasians are less my concern than Hispanics and Africans Americans taking up only a few seats in the lectures I’ve been in. Literally a few seats: 1,2,3. </p>
<p>dina4119-[…I’m an MCB major and it is not 80-90% Asian, more around 50-60%. And even if it was, who cares?] </p>
<p>How about if they fill MCB with 80-90% Inuits from Alaska, or make it 80-90% Hispanic. Or how about specifically 80-90% Japanese. See what I’m saying. </p>
<p>Do you think it is okay if 80-90% of the school system is one ethnicity? Isn’t that how it was in like the 1930’s?</p>
<p>And please don’t say “'we are not supposed to see race”, because Asian cultures are notoriously race conscious (I’ll be careful with my language here). When I hear things like that I shake my head.</p>
<p>^What exactly are we supposed to do about it? Force Asians to take non-STEM majors? Force everyone else to take STEM majors?</p>
<p>I would say that 70% asian would be the upper limit. Anyway, when I said minorities, I meant non-Asian and non-White.</p>