<p>Lol definitely some people here who won’t fit the “QuakerOats Asian Robot Standard”</p>
<p>^Oh no, all asians are robots. You are absolutely correct.</p>
<p>Hmm… I’m Viet-Chinese (Grandparents were refugees from Chinese Civil War; Parents are refugees from Vietnam War) so I’ll give it a try…</p>
<p>Haverford 11.4%
Middlebury 9.51%
Colby 7.18%
Bates 5.09%
Kenyon 4.67%</p>
<p>These are 5 of the colleges I am applying to (Bowdoin, Vassar, and Wesleyan are other 3). I show a huge interest in social sciences like economics, anthropology, and psychology and am applying to schools with few Asian-Americans (not intentionally). </p>
<p>As others have mentioned, it is a disadvantage to be Asian and applying to certain schools like MIT, Harvey Mudd, CalTech, Stanford, HYP because of the huge pool of Asian applicants. Out of all Asians, there is some competition itself. I would assume colleges would favor Southeast Asians (Filipino, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian) over Asians from other regions (Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Indian) considering southeast asians tend to be more poorer and live in more impoverished areas.</p>
<p>If you’re applying to LACs or midwest colleges, Asians are considered to be an URM too. It just really depends on where you look.</p>
<p>^^^As long as your stats are respectable, and I suspect they are, I believe you will be receiving many acceptance letters. And those are all great schools - it will be tough for you to decide.</p>
<p>Dbate: As an African American student, what television show did you pattern yourself after that allowed you to do so well in school and become so proficient in science? (just a joke from a previous post!)</p>
<p>My high school has a lot of Asians, so many of my friends are from various Asian countries. Obviously, not every Asian is a “robot.” I’ve had a few Asian high achievers as friends, but many of my friends were more like me, decent students who wasted too much time doing stupid stuff and not studying. Some of these Asian friends do seem to carry a big burden of not being successful enough. This guy down the street is a great actor but his grades are good but not great. His parents tell him all of the time that he’s lazy and stupid. One time his mom said to him (in front of me) that he was probably going to be homeless. The dude has a 3.3 gpa. He’s not going to be homeless. He’s going to go to a local community college and then try to transfer to a UC. I have a little better gpa and my parents think I’m Einstein. I’m telling you that it’s not easy being Asian in American high schools. If you do really well, colleges label you a robot. If you don’t, your parents think you’re a loser.</p>
<p>^^^^OCT…take a look at AvantTao’s post just above. Consider small LACs that have low Asian populations. I believe Davidson is less than 3% Asian. LACs have higher acceptance rates overall than HYPS, and even an interest in science and math would be helpful to you as most applicants to these schools are more social science oriented - and, many of these schools have excellent programs in science, because many of their graduates go on to medical school. In addition, consider your value as a Californian. Schools on the East Coast, like say in NC (like Davidson), get much fewer applications from the West Coast than they would from say, their home state, so this can give you an edge as well. Finally, every school on Avant’s list has a “no-loan” policy and meets full need, so they can be considered financial safeties too (Davidson also has this policy). </p>
<p>I know it is frustrating for you, but if you it can imagine it as less of an anti-Asian bias, and more of a pro-well-rounded student body bias that the universities are trying to produce, you can work within that paradigm to improve your chances for acceptance to a very good school.</p>
<p>
I would be very surprised if this occurred at highly selective schools, assuming that both applicants lack other hooks and have approximately equivalent stats. Would you like to present an anecdotal example?</p>
<p>For the record, I think it is a very good idea for any applicant to any college to establish a context for his application. If the applicant is disadvantaged in some way, the applicant should mention that on the application. If the applicant has an understanding of other cultures or places, the applicant should mention that. </p>
<p>What I find troublesome about the officially reported ethnic categories is that they are arbitrary (they have changed several times in my lifetime) but they are taken much too seriously. No one has shown scientifically that there is any bright line between one “race” and the next regarding any characteristic legitimately of interest to a college admission office. Again, if the individual applicant has something to say about his particular circumstances, by all means let him say it, but checkboxes applied to groups shouldn’t substitute for individual consideration in the admission process.</p>
<p>
I know a white guy who got into a top 3 school because he was from Idaho and played an obscure varsity sport.</p>
<p>But do you know of a URM with the same stats and holistic profile (minus those two hooks) who was rejected? Other factors will of course be a factor; however, I believe (largely unsubstantiated, so I’d really love some evidence either way) that race is a -greater- hook than geography or obscure EC, all else being equal.</p>
<p>Going to smaller schools with fewer Asians may sound like a perfectly good alternative to many of you, but I can tell you that from the perspective of a first generation Asian, this is not a good alternative for many of us. Our parents want us to go to a school that is well known, which is why so many Asians apply to Harvard, Yale, MIT, Stanford, Cal Tech, etc. They see our acceptance into these well-known schools as an indication that their hard work and dedication to us has meant something. They want our families still in Asia to know that we are succeeding here, and going to HYPS helps prove that. If I were to go to Davidson, my parents would be very disappointed, and I don’t want to see that happen. This is why affirmative action angers many of us. We work very hard to please our parents, we score well, and then some of us are rejected because of racial prejudicies against “robot” Asians. In our culture, making our families proud is much more important than to the typical white or black American family. I’m not saying that white and black students do not want to please their parents, but I am saying that it is particularly strong in the Asian culture, especially for first generation students.</p>
<p>^^i actually understand.im also a first generation asian…my mom almost always says "i really want you to go to either NYU or Columbia these kinds of well-known schools!"then im always like "oh…okay…i will try.“even though i dont want to go to Columbia and NYU at ALL…”</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Even though im not good at math at all, and have tried to rise my grade and SAT score, people around me think that i got such grage/score w/o any effort becuase of “oh he’s Asian!”</p>
<p>Lets stop this topic and discuss the real matters: why do blacks get treated like kings (no racist)(no monarchist)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>As a first-generation Asian student, I can also sympathize with this. I do want to make my mom proud, and she was very upset (understatement) when I did not apply to UCLA, Berkeley, Stanford, Harvard, or the other ivies. She also doesn’t understand why I want to apply to LACs and go far away to a college she has never even heard. However, I tell her that after I graduate college and/or grad school, I will be successful and help support her when she retires. I think deep down many Asian families have expectation for their children, but will still be supportive of them if they make a decision that makes them happy. I might be a little different as money has always been a key issue in my family and when I told her that many of the LACs had no-loan policies like the ivies, it was a turning point in her decisions to let support me (I was going to apply whether or not she said no). While a Harvard or Yale degree is something that shows intelligence and hard work, it depends on what you do AFTER you graduate that makes the different. Coming from first-hand experience, I have met so many ivy grads who are ignorant or have a really odd sense of entitlement that they graduated from such a “prestigious” institution. Even if you graduate from a Davidson or Middlebury, you can still find really great jobs that can make your family proud. </p>
<p>Trust me, when the college hype is all over, the Asian family catfights shift to who has the best job or makes the most money. </p>
<p>So, make a decision that makes you happy, and just hope that your parents approve.</p>
<p>And if you really want to apply to a MIT or ivy, then you just really need to stand out from other Asians. You need to show an intense interest in something outside of the “stereotypical” Asian extracurrics. If I applied to an ivy or MIT, I would have put that I am a first-generation gay, Vietnamese-Chinese student who is graduating from a low performing area and at a charter school where I will be part of the 1st graduating class. How many other Asians can claim that on their application? Not many. Bottom line: Find something you are passionate about that makes you unique.</p>
<p>Hope Full:</p>
<p>Very well said. I am an Asian immigrant and I completely agree with you. Although my parents do not necessarily know about the more prestigious colleges out there, I can tell that my mother wants me to enter a university that is well-known and will allow her to “brag”.</p>
<p>Thanks for the encouragement, AvantTao. I’m sure it will work out in the end. My message was designed to enlighten those on the board who may not be familiar with Asian culture and the pressures we feel that they may not. We’re not robots. Rather, most Asians simply embrace a culture in which making one’s family proud is a primary goal/desire/obligation. We work hard not because we are robots. We work hard to make our families proud. That means a lot to me and many of my friends. </p>
<p>I sometimes catch myself envying my white American friends whose parents want them to go to a good college but do not care if that school is a top 10 school. It’s not that these parents don’t want the best for their children, they do, it’s just that they do not attach their sense of self-worth to their children’s accomplishments, as is common for many Asian parents, including mine. Perhaps if more non-Asians were aware of this part of our culture, they would realize that many of us dislike affirmative action not because we are racists, but simply because it sometimes prevents us from achieving what has been our family’s life-long goal. Not achieving that goal is difficult no matter the situation. Not achieving that goal while URMs in your school, who didn’t work as hard as you did, are given that opportunity is extremely difficult.</p>
<p>If it’s any consolation, I think it’ll be better for your kids. Somewhat.</p>
<p>Asian families sound a LOT like Jewish families. Between the 50’s and the 70’s if you were Jewish and didn’t go to medical or law school, you just knew you were breaking your parents hearts. Around the 70’s-late 80’s it was also okay to be an accountant (CPA only!) or an engineer. Well, expectations for our kids in the 00’s are more lax, but still not quite there yet - Anthropology? Sure (but just get a PhD!) My daughter wants to be a photographer - okay (but is going for <em>biomedical</em> photography…). Somewhat more flexible, but the kids still have it hard-wired into them to make their parents happy…</p>
<p>If it’s any consolation, I think it’ll be better for your kids. Somewhat.</p>
<p>Asian families sound a LOT like Jewish families. Between the 50’s and the 70’s if you were Jewish and didn’t go to medical or law school, you just knew you were breaking your parents hearts. Around the 70’s-late 80’s it was also okay to be an accountant (CPA only!) or an engineer. Well, expectations for our kids in the 00’s are more lax, but still not quite there yet - Anthropology? Sure (but just get a PhD!) My daughter wants to be a photographer - okay (but is going for <em>biomedical</em> photography - and I didn’t even have to say anything!). Somewhat more flexible, but the kids still have it hard-wired into them to make their parents happy…</p>
<p>i used to wish i could be a native american… (no racist)</p>