The last time I had a chat with an Ivy AO (a couple months ago) and we talked about the Asian “bias”. I thought this comment from this AO was very revealing - she said - why don’t we see Asians with good academics, while having summer or regular jobs in McDonalds, helping the family, having some struggles, showing some personal growth and wanting to study - medieval arts, romance language, or have an interest in theater. Instead, we got hundreds of generic applications with kids with strong academics, upper-middle class, having attended expensive summer programs on Ivy campuses or going onto paid mission trips during summer, playing music for 10+ yrs (piano, violin in particular), play sports like tennis, badminton, and winning STEM competitions like Intel/Siemens, STS Regeneron, Math quiz bowls (AMOs)… and want to do major in Biology (Pre-med), BME, Comp. Sci, Finance, Engineering blah blah… I have Asian students and I told them the odds are stack against them if they do all these above stuff. There are just too many look- alikes in the application pool. The essay is about the only thing to set these kids apart, but seriously, how many versions of gee - I failed in my1st debate team and learn from there or gee - I went to build homes in Gutamela and recognized how lucky I am - essays have these Ivy AOs read during all these years??? JMHO.