It is also hard to make a direct comparison between Berkeley & UCLA, both state schools, and a private school like Harvard. Many, many students will choose a UC over a private school for financial reasons. Additionally, I suspect significant numbers of CA students are not interested in going across the country to college.
About 39% undergraduates at UCB identified as Asian from 2021 numbers, unless I am misreading this: Fall enrollment at a glance | University of California
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There was another source that I saw that included comprehensive data for all admits by demographic this cycle, but I can’t seem to find it.
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There was an antisemitic statement written on a student’s room message board just this week at a selective LAC. An LAC that has periodically had antisemitic displays in the recent past.
I would also attribute this obsession with prestige, especially for immigrant families from Asia, to the importance of attending an “elite” university in their home country, particularly China, India, Japan, S. Korea, Taiwan and Singapore.
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I wonder how they classify multiracial students. Are they lumped into “decline to state” or are they put in the category that best fulfills the university’s diversity goals? Something to note: In 2022, Davis, Irvine and Riverside all had a higher % of Asians than Berkeley.
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I believe those numbers reflect freshman admissions, not the percentage of enrolled students on these campuses.
But regardless of the exact percentage, what’s the point? I don’t think it makes sense to use the numbers at Berkeley and UCLA as any sort of a national benchmark, given that they are state schools in a state where 30% of Asian Americans live.
You’re right; I didn’t even notice that. That is truly peculiar, since obviously at least some multiracial students applied and were admitted to UC.
Agree
An important corollary is whether students even classify themselves as multi-racial. As a parent of bi-racial (“Wasian”) students, I have watched this closely over the years and have been amazed how many bi/multi-racial friends do NOT identify as such in their school demo profiles. I have not done an official survey to find their reasons, though I’m sure there are many.
I guess my point is that racial demographics at schools are only as good as self-reported by the students, in addition to what categories are offered and reported by the schools.
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I had never heard that until just now. You learn something new everyday on CC!
As someone posted upthread, perhaps it’s the “fear” of negativity if a student checks an “Asian” box. If that’s so, that’s sad.
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I think it is incorrect to call this an ‘assumption.’ A lot of people in this thread are giving their own opinions based on their own feelings and their own anecdotal experience. I encourage everyone to go read what the universities themselves say in cases like Fisher v. The University of Texas (and similar cases). The universities make it clear that they need to have different standards for applicants of different races in order to have the campus diversity they have determined is important. I am not saying this is a good thing or a bad thing…BUT…“Asian” kids do have a tougher time and the universities themselves say so.
It is true - per what the universities themselves have argued in court.
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From my experience it’s typically one particular demographic group who believes the Asian penalty is some figment of people’s imagination.
Asian liberals accept that Asian students are held to a higher standard at the most selective schools because they see it first hand. They acknowledge but still believe it is the right thing to do.
Non Asian liberals deny this is happening. CC is a microcosm of how different people view this issue.
Im not sure how people view Sara Harberson but she has stated several times that this is well known (perhaps when she was an Associate Dean of admissions at UPenn) but not openly acknowledged.
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https://www.saraharberson.com/blog/attacks-against-asians-college-admissions
…most Americans don’t get to see what happens behind closed doors in an admissions office at an elite college. But I did.
I saw the mood quickly shift in the admissions committee room when I worked at one of those elite colleges. There were no cameras to capture the discrimination, the higher-than-normal expectations, and the callousness of the admissions process which treated Asian Americans as if they were not even second-class citizens.
Many of us in that literal and figurative ‘committee room’ are second-class, though. First, second, and third-generation Americans, in fact. We can spot discrimination like the numbers on our relatives’ forearms. We know better.
While college admissions offices can shred damning documents faster than it takes us to pick ourselves up from the proverbial sidewalk and dust ourselves off, the sting and stain on the concrete, the historical record of America and higher education, never goes away.
Elite colleges are scrambling to make it all seem like a fictional storyline. Some say they are making up for lost time, admitting Asian Americans at a higher rate all of a sudden. But these colleges fail to provide the acceptance rates then and now of Asian American applicants compared to every racial group in the applicant pool. If that data was available to all, then we would see the brutal attacks that went undocumented, unregulated, and underground for decades in college admissions.
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Some don’t report but many (mine included) do. What happens to them? How are they counted?
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Thanks to SNL we now know what goes on behind those closed doors. I think this aired after the varsity blues scandal but the skit ends with the issue we’ve been discussing. Sandra Oh is great! (A little light-hearted fun before the weekend)
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Hilarious. After all the information from Harvard’s trial came to light, I doubt any AO will openly say an Asian student’s personality is lacking.
They’ll just stare at each other and nod.
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UCLA’s website lists “two or more races” at 7% of the freshmen. https://admission.ucla.edu/apply/student-profile I can’t find it at the other UCs.
CA Census shows “two or more races” at 4.2% in 2021
My daughter is Central Asian which is not a box on the Common App. She checked off multiracial and then wrote about how much she wanted a box to check in one of her essays. Had us dying laughing.
In all seriousness, the ethnicity question in my opinion should be a fill-in-the-blank or nothing at all. Is a white person from Siberia or Kyrgyzstan Asian? How about a Sami person from Finland? Pashtuns are white but Mongols are Asian both are common in Afghanistan…it’s impossible to fit everyone nicely into predetermined categories so I think we should just stop.
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Well, it is frustrating if the multi category is not reported at other UCs. The numbers are not small in California, so this is surprising for the public system.
The CSU system has a “two or more races” category (4%). So, yay!?