Are Asians screwed when it comes to the SAT?

Test Preparation
1

<p>First and foremost, this post is not intended to be racially, culturally, or ethnically offensive/racist in any way.
I simply wanted to understand a bit more about a SAT Data Set PDF that I found online.</p>

<p>I've been told that some ethnic groups tend to score higher.
I've also been told of the "true score-scaling" values based on percentile ranges- depending on your ethnic group's percentile mean ranges, your score might have a "boost" or "decrease" in the eyes of the admission.</p>

<p>Anyways, this is the website for the Plot Data by Racial Group:
<a href="http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/research/SAT-Percentile-Ranks-By-Gender-Ethnicity-2013.pdf"&gt;http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/research/SAT-Percentile-Ranks-By-Gender-Ethnicity-2013.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I noticed that for LITERALLY (yes, literally) every other ethnic group, a 800 was recorded as 99 or 99+ percentile regardless of gender.
However, it happens to be that ONLY in the Asian group does a 800 in any of the three components of the SAT not record as a 99 or 99+ percentile in not just one, but MULTIPLE scores.
Please bear with me here if this sounds like that superiority-crap; understand that this is genuine anxiety as it happens that I am a certain ethnic race that is rather displeased with this data that I've just received. Can I just say how much more pressured Asians must be to score a 800 in Math? Even a perfect score is still considered 96th percentile, and a 750 (which by some rigorous penalty curves, is just 1 question wrong- one tiny mistake) is already in the 87th percentile- compared to a steady 98th percentile remnant in the White table.</p>

<p>And this is the most recent table as well; all data is from official SAT 2013 results.</p>

<p>Here's the Asian table:</p>

<p>Percentile Ranges based on scores:
Critical Reading /Math /Writing
800: 98/ 96/ 99
750: 96/ 87/ 95
700: 91/ 75/ 89
650: 83/ 60/ 80
600: 71/ 47/ 69 </p>

<p>Compared to the White table:</p>

<p>800 99 99+ 99+
750 98 98 98
700 94 94 95
650 87 84 88
600 75 72 78</p>

<p>I would really love some constructive feedback. I've always known from racial stereotypes that some ethnic groups (not just Asians!) perform better in grades and standardized tests than others, but never have I actually seen real test data samples.</p>

2

<p>Wow, I never realized there was that much of a difference! The mean math score is 600!!! That is absolutely insane!</p>

3

<p>Why would that have any effect on your admissions chances? You could do a similar analysis for National Merit Scholars, and conclude that they must have a terrible time getting accepted to college.</p>

4

<p>Well this is why there’s affirmative action so in a way we’re kind of screwed :(</p>

5

<p>@immasenior:
Once you spend some time out of the top 10% of students that comprise our notoriously famous CC community, you’ll start to notice the disparities. I’d reckon that pretty much everyone who checks this place on a daily basis are wielding a top 5% score, or somewhere post-2000.</p>

<p>Also, why is that 800 Math score a 96th percentile?! Whyyyyyy?! Cruel CollegeBoard, why must menial scores like this influence our application so much?! /sadface</p>

<p>@SoCalDad2:
Because Asians are the majority of the minority. As an Asian, you are potentially competing against a crowd of 800ers in comparison to other ethnic groups. Consider two perfectly similar applicants with top Ivy-level stats- one is an Asian and one is a Latino. Due to the sheer amount of Asians who also have this level of stats but the lower amount of Latinos in this stats pool, the Latino would definitely be selected if an admissions officer were limited down to the last few acceptance slots open.
In comparison and in truth, the Asian straddles their scores at a disadvantage; he or she must be content with a 800 in Math as a 96th percentile- the absolute maximum, whilst the White, Black, Mexican, or any other ethnic group in the world is compared at a 99th level basis.
In that sense, since Asians have been seen as much more competitive in GPA, SAT scores, AP, etc., it’s simply depressing these days when I look at EA/ED to Ivies and see “Asian” or “White” listed under Weaknesses- but sadly, it’s the truth. Despite all motions of neutrality from the top colleges, it’s sort of incontrovertible that in the upper end of the AI spectrum in the ultimate running, Asians are compared against Asians and not Latin Americans.</p>

6

<p>I think whites serve as the baseline. Above them (scores getting a -) are Asians and below them (scores getting a +) are black, latino, native american, alaskan and the other URMs. </p>

<p>For example a 750 for a white is a 750.
a 750 for a black is an 800
a 750 for an asian is a 700 </p>

<p>Just my thoughts and experiences, not meant to be racist.</p>

7

<p>@Mandalorian: See, this what I’m getting at. Whites are okay, since they can still potentially maximize their scores at a solid 2400. Yet with Asians, even with a 2400 score, the “overall attractiveness” downgrade due to their simply being a certain ethnic group associated with competitive/hard-working/high-score spitting-out stereotypes leaves them with a crippled 2300 or lower in comparison to other cultural groups. And that’s where the college inequality kicks in; Asians are in no way superior, but rather just spend more time and dedication on such priorities. As a result of modern day wisecrack humor, the modern 2400 SAT 4.0 GPA Asian is nearly always called “hard-working” or simply dismissed as “aznnnnnnnnnnnn lulz”, whereas when the same 2400 SAT 4.0 GPA standard is rarely achieved by a Black or Puerto Rican, we hear a massive outcry of “omigawd genius”, “ibjelly”, and even “must be secret azn in disguise”. It’s a shame that you cannot lie about your ethnicity, as although it presses on racial issues, the difference between bubbling in a circle near the top and bubbling in a circle a few categories below it on a SAT test may just end up tipping your admissions factor.</p>

8

<p>BipolarBuddhist, you sound very smart. And you are going to drive yourself crazy. Here’s the thing…yes, it’s nuts (i hadn’t realized this until i saw your stats) but what are you going to do? There are all kinds of crazy things like that in life.</p>

<p>Going for you, you have a strong voice and a creative mind…and that will take you down every path you seek. The ultimate college is just a car…but you’re strapped in for something bigger. </p>

9

<p>The bias against Asians does not apply only to SAT scores, but virtually every academic aspect. This is why I believe with all my heart that part Asian students have a huge advantage - being around Asian parents who push them to be the best, but having the option to simply write that they are Caucasian so that they don’t need to compete with the other high-achieving Asians.</p>

10

<p>It’s not that Asians are held to a higher level necessarily. Colleges just want diversity in their class. Though it doesn’t exactly work like this, imagine a college wants to accept 50% white, 25% black, 25% Asian. The mean scores for the whites group is 700. So, most over 700 are accepted and a few under. Mean scores for blacks could be 680 (say only a few applied and the sample isn’t very large) but the mean for Asians is 780. To keep the diversity ratios, they have to be more critical of the Asian pool and take only top scores. There are less black applicants and so they take some with less desirable scores to maintain ratios.</p>

<p>…does that make any sense? Probably not. I don’t mean to be racist at all, it’s just the fact that y’know Asians aren’t really a minority any longer. They can afford to reject more qualified applicants in order to accept a more diverse class with slightly lower scores. This doesn’t just affect Asians though, whites are a majority too and gender often plays into admissions as well in traditionally dominated fields (engineering, nursing, etc.)</p>

11

<p>To put it plainly…
Asian parents (particularly first-generation) tend to be more focused/invested in their kids’ academic success. There are various cultural reasons for this that I won’t get into here. Some might even argue that Asian students have an unfair advantage in school and on standardized tests, i.e., they get more emotional and financial “support.” (I placed the word support in quotation marks to indicate that Asian children might not always perceive it as support – it can feel like “pressure” at times.)</p>

<p>I think a healthier way to look at the SAT score data set stratified by ethnicity is to understand that the SAT score is one of several factors used for college admissions. In general, students who achieve a great deal given their opportunities/resources or demonstrate great potential in some other way…tend to do well in college admissions. Translation: Do the best you can with what you’ve got. Work hard. Control what you can control. Trust that everything will work out in the end.</p>

<p>Good luck with everything…</p>

12

<p>I wholeheartedly agree with Bartleby007. While a kid from any other minority group who lives in the ghetto may rejoice at notching a 2000 and receive a full scholarship to Stanford, a 2200 for Koreans is now considered substandard, a 2300 average and a 2400 increasingly common, I kid you not. </p>

<p>So if you’re Asian and especially Korean, remember that a 2200 is just not good enough for ANY IVY LEAGUE no matter how good your spec (Is this even an English word? We Koreans use it so much) looks!</p>

<p>REMEMBER: THE SAT IS EVERYTHING HAN GOOK SSE GGI DUL AH!!!</p>

13

<p>It’s true that Asians are driven to succeed but there are some Asian parents out there that are open to new things. Even though I’m Asian, I play a spate of sports and extracurricular activities that other Asian won’t do. I’m currently a junior and I really don’t want to see the neck-to-neck competition that will happen next year. Sigh. There;s nothing that I can do, which honestly sucks. </p>