Non-stereotypical Asian -- Advice, please!

Lejeune
Mon, 06 Aug 2007 05:35:11 +0000

Honestly, it makes me laugh a little to think that the only way for an Asian applicant to avoid being labeled as an ORM or a stereotypical Asian is to score lower on the SATs and quit playing the piano.

Being an Asian American will make it harder for you to make it into the top 15, but you’re going to have to come up with another way to stand out because being a bad test-taker like you mentioned doesn’t scream “I set myself apart from my ethnicity by being not score-driven.” Objectively speaking, you’re still going to be at a disadvantage against a white applicant who scored a 2100 on the SATs. It comes down to the build-up of the student body.

I have a hard time believing those “un-Asian” traits would actually work to your advantage unless you make it explicitly known that you intentionally scored lower on the SATs to prove a point or if top schools selected their students solely on the basis of “diversity in academic performance” in relation to race.