@BigflowerSusie - thanks for sharing this, very illuminating. I knew there was a bias but this hits it home.
"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. "
There are a lot of Asians who do support their families by working at fast food places, at least here in the bay area, I know many kids working at Safeway, chipotle etc… But the whole point of being parents is to try not to have kids struggle right, wrt finances? Yeah struggling with school and being a teenager is part of life, but why would parents not take high paying jobs so they can have a good income? It would be like telling Google, don’t give me the stocks worth a million dollars, because my kids need to show colleges they’re struggling. lol ok I jest.
“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.”
A lot of these summer programs outside the country are actually not being in a resort but in the community. The whole point is to stretch the kids and get them out of their comfort zone, isn’t that what colleges want? I agree that there is a financial component as well and some of these summer abroad programs do fund raising to help out.
Good advice.
“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.”
Agree with you on the essay, so if an URM wrote about Guatemala or failing in their first debate, that would be received better?