In my opinion, these sort of hyperbolic exaggerations (IMO) go a long way toward reinforcing the mindset that “Asian parents and kids believe that they are handicapped,” whether the facts support such a belief or not.
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The event did happen. The school did call all the Asian parents in one year. It may be inconvenient to acknowledge
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The group is very diverse but the overwhelming majority have ties to 2 countries. What happens if you read 100 applications from similar sounding names, parents from Fudan U (top school btw) and next 100 from the other type of name (parents from IIT) and then a sprinkling of “other” - who knows?
That sounds a little discriminatory to me. Maybe the school called in every family whose student did not get in ED and they all happened to be Asian? Is this a private school?
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They called the Asian parents. It was stated as such. There was no confusion. I am not saying all the non Asians got in ED. Some of the non Asians also did not make it in ED. Many did. It is a private school.
This happened one year. I am not saying Asians are shut out every year. Some years are fine. My son’s friends came an enquired with him the day EAs came out. The concern was very touching.
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Stated as such by whom?
So the school was concerned enough to personally reach out to the Asian families, promising to look into the reasons why the Asian students didn’t get in, but they did nothing regarding the non Asian students? I imagine this thrilled the families of the non Asian students who didn’t get in.
In my experience, every year at private schools there are horror stories about the admission wrongs that some segment of students faced. I tend to nod sympathetically but also take the stories with a grain of salt, as people generally want to make sense of disappointing results that really don’t seem to make much sense. ‘There is no good reason why X didn’t get into Y, so it must have been because of Z.’.
Regardless, I’ll take your word for it that you think something like this happened. But without more information (where did they apply? Where did they end up, how many kids, etc.) it seems a bit much use your anecdote to justify your conclusion that “Most Asians believe they are the new Jews.”
Just my opinion, of course.
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I’m trying to rationalize this statement and I can’t. I’m imagining our school calling the white parents only to a meeting (whether it’s about EA or anything else); there would be an uproar. I must be missing something.
It’s sweet when our kids’ friends care for them and share their concern. I’m happy your son had this experience.
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It’s true - it’s amazing how quickly the discussion here (a great discussion nonetheless) veered away from your initial question regarding the whole concept of “Asian.” Also how even the thoughtful people on this thread seem to assume that a huge percentage of “Asian” students are musical/STEM. (My kids definitely are not and the vast majority of their “Asian” friends are not.) Or that many have expensive counselors who advise them to pretend to be someone other than who they are. Maybe one could say it’s rough justice and that “white” students have a similar problem, as the “white” category covers a tremendous variety of ethnic, cultural, socio-economic territory. But you don’t see these same kids of stereotypical generalizations regarding white applicants (or black applicants or Hispanic applicants for that matter).
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@tkoparent: very perceptive.
My simple points in this op were:
- What does “Asian” mean regarding college admissions; and
- What do any of us know about this apparent “stigma”?
I have refrained from the posts that still use the term “Asian”. According to my cites, the folks that live in Asia is something today is something like 4.5 billion people of extraordinarily varied cultures. That doesn’t event count their ancestors around the world, including in the US. I am not sure what that number is, although I am sure someone has the stats.
My simple point in this thread has been not to discourage ANY kid simply because they have some “Asian” blood coursing through them. Perhaps AOs among us might have a betters sense, but I sure don’t.
Now, if the universities/colleges are doing that, that is an entirely different thing.
All the same, it’s a great discussion. But I hope we as the CC family can come up with some guidance in advising the kids at issue. I may be naive, but I truly believe the colleges consider all students in the totality of circumstances. Feel free to tell me I am naive.
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Meaning like this?
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In my experience, the above is not accurate. I notice plenty of stereotypical generalizations on this forum regarding applicants of other races.
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You may be right, I probably just notice more when the references are to Asian students. I’m sure it must be similarly frustrating for “Hispanic” students who get lumped together, without regard to whether their heritage is Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, etc.
I’m with you, naive by choice. We didn’t really focus on these issues when my son was applying. We visited schools all over the US, and he applied to the schools he liked. He figured that if a school did not accept him, it wasn’t a good match and he wouldn’t want to be there.
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Do people believe there’s a higher bar for students from such demographics (and perhaps Korea as well)?
I also wonder whether people identify as “Asian” on Chance Me threads because they are worried about outing themselves by being more specific, particularly if the furnish very specific EC and related information or if they hail from a smaller/distinct (in the US) ethnic group.
I think this is what most people on CC do for the students who come here and their list is: Ivy League, MIT, Stanford. Or they come on and they want to major in CS and their list is UIUC, Washington, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Cal, and UCLA. When people are only applying to schools/programs that are admitting fewer than 10% of applicants, they need to be encouraged to create a balanced list. Not because they aren’t good enough or qualified enough to get into one of the schools on their list, but because there are way too many qualified people gunning for those spots. No matter whether the student is Asian, white, black, Hispanic, LGBTQ+, low income, first generation, legacy, etc, they’re all told to put some schools on their list that are likely to be acceptances, affordable, and that they would be happy to attend.
Now, if a student who identifies as Asian has a Match Me thread (i.e. looking for schools thread), I would base my suggestions off of what the student indicates s/he is interested in in a school. If there are two schools and one is relatively underrepresented with Asians compared to the other, I might indicate that School X might be more receptive since they may be hoping to increase the percentage of Asian students on the campus. Of course, this is really only true for the highly rejective colleges, as the vast majority of the colleges in the U.S. would be overjoyed to have high stat students apply (and enroll).
If any of the above seems problematic in any way, I would appreciate any feedback.
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I understand where you’re coming from, but this approach highlights the “being Asian” aspect of an applicant as a handicap or a benefit. I say, if there are colleges that want to increase their percentage of Asian students, let them do the work just like colleges might do with applicants of other ethnic/racial backgrounds. Long winded way of saying that if a college wants to increase their diversity it should be incumbent on them to do so. Otherwise I agree with your counseling approach. Thank you!
You mean, by putting them in an Asian pool (sorry, it’s hard not to keep using the “A” word once it gets started), but correct me if I’m wrong. Is that what you’re saying?
Except, that’s a strategy I would apply to every student as well. Apply where you’ve got something the college wants. If you’re male, apply to schools where the sex ratio is 60%-40% girls/boys. If you are from the northeast, apply to schools with fewer northeasterners (eg schools in Texas). Etc.
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Yes, I think that is the thinking. But is it disingenuous to say - Asian ethnicity considered only if under-represented but not considered if over-represented?
Or in the world of college admissions, ethnicity can only help you?
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That seems to be the fork in the road, doesn’t it?