<p>"My 12th grade son, who is white, has many friends whose parents have immigrated to the US from Asian countries; some of his friends were born overseas, many others were born here. Since this is a college town, all of these kids have highly educated parents. These “Asians” include Koreans, Taiwanese, Indians, Pakistanis, Burmese (Myanmar). "</p>
<p>Interesting. My S, 18, has many Asian friends from a variety of countries, and I also am friends with some of their parents. In addition, I also interview for Harvard.</p>
<p>I have found that the so-called stereotypes largely hold true, though of course there are exceptions. Most of the Asians whom I encountered through S’s h.s. were excellent students who were disproportionately represented among the top students in his high schools. Most came from highly educated families, in particular having parents who were scientists, doctors and in similar fields.</p>
<p>The Asian students also tended to participate in Mu Alpha Theta, National Honor Society, Model U.N., swimming or tennis team and possibly also play a classical musical instrument, particularly piano or violin. They also tended to plan to be premed or engineering majors, fields that typically they were steered into by their parents (And, yes, I do know their parents, so know this is true) who wanted them to enter fields that the parents perceived guaranteed high incomes.</p>
<p>I can not think of any Asians who were pursuing ECs like marching band, football or basketball or who planned to major in things like the humanities, or art. I can think of one Asian American who is plannning on majoring in the social sciences. He, however, was unusual among S’s Asian friends and among other Asian students whom I’ve encountered in that his grades were not stellar and his Asia-born mom was letting him find his own intellectual passions.</p>
<p>Even 15 years ago when I ran an educational program for top high school students who aspired to be journalists, I found that the Asian students who wanted to be journalists were being heavily pressured by their parents to enter fields like medicine.</p>
<p>Anyway, I personally have not seen an Asian student rejected by Harvard who was stellar in the application pool. The Asian students whom I have interviewed certainly met Harvard’s qualifications as is the case of 90% of the students who apply.However, as is also the case of the majority of applicants (including many URMs), what the Asian students were lacking was the rarest of qualities to find in the application pool: a demonstrated intellectual passion (This means that it’s clear that the student is pursuing intellectual interests beyond what’s required for good grades) and demonstrated passion for ECs (which goes beyond getting offices for resume decoration or participating in community service to pile up the hours).</p>
<p>The very top student whom I have ever interviewed was a Korean-American who was definitely the full package: excellent (though not 2400) scores, national office in an organization that he clearly had a passion for and made an impact in; awards in art (which he had had to negotiate with his parents because they didn’t want him to pursue that EC) and math; community service in which he clearly was involved and made an impact (was demonstrated through his interview in which he literally lit up when discussing his experiences, and was able to give many anecdotes and specifics showing his leadership, impact and passion for the issue). He also had managed to pursue singing as an EC – and had to negotiate with his parents to do that, too. He was planning on going premed, frankly said that was what his parents insisted that he do, but he had found a wonderful way of combining his plans to be a doctor with his interests in art and in people, planning on becoming either a psychiatrist or plastic surgeon.</p>
<p>Anyway, when it comes to most students whom I interview for Harvard, regardless of their race, they don’t have the full package, and they don’t get in. Because most applicants have excellent grades and scores, what tends to make the difference between who gets in and who doesn’t is demonstrated intellectual and extracurricular passion. </p>
<p>Frankly, in my area, many of the white students who don’t get in have pursued many of the same EC activities that the Asian students have done, and also have pursued those activities without a high level of impact or apparent interest. I think that the Asians who don’t get in stand out to each other, though, because they are much more likely to come from cultures that have assumed that high scores will get them in. They themselves also may be more familiar with other high scoring Asians who don’t get in, and not pay that much attention to the high scoring whites who also were rejected.</p>
<p>If the Asians live in an area like NYC, New England or D.C., they also may not realize that due to the overabundance of high stat, strong EC, etc. applicants from their region, lots of excellent students of all races will be rejected from Ivies because the schools want regional diversity, too. This even is true of high stat URM legacies who would be top picks of top schools in places like the West Coast and South.</p>