<p>I think asian = white in terms of how much advantage each gets for LACs</p>
<p>Actually, I would hypothesize from the composition of free diversity weekend visits that Asian > white by a small margin.</p>
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<p>So does this mean that being Asian does have a (slight) advantage when applying to such schools?</p>
<p>^Perhaps, yes. More importantly, there is no evidence that being Asian is a disadvantage at such schools, unlike at many universities that are academic peers.</p>
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<p>Well, I guess it’s a good thing that I’m applying to more LACs than to those unis :)</p>
<p>Being Asian is too broad a classification to say whether there is any advantage or disadvantage in admissions to places like Amherst. Like Jews currently, Asians at top universities and colleges are over-represented when compared to the general American population (although they may not be if one looks at the overall top applicant pool). Amherst, when compared to peer Ivy League universities, has a lower percentage of Asian students. Nonetheless, it does well compared with peer co-educational LACs with the exception of single-sex Wellesley College which has an unusually high percentage of Asians, particularly Asian internationals. There may be many reasons for the increased popularity of top universities over LACs among some Asians. Moreover, the reasons may be different for Asian internationals and first generation Asians versus second/third generation Asian-Americans. The former probably place greater emphasis on name-recognition and the practical aspects of a college degree such as career preparation (e.g., engineering, computer science, business, law, medicine, etc.) rather than the quality of the education itself. These also are the most important determinants in university choice in their motherlands. For the latter group of Asians, who are more acculturated into American society, their appreciation of the value of a broad-based education in which verbal/communication skills are an important key to success in many different fields, will enable them to consider LACs seriously when making their college decisions. Additionally factors such college environment, community, location, academic “atmosphere” (seminars vs. lectures, getting to know profs, etc.), and even quality of life issues such as housing/food/fraternities (usually lack thereof as they can be exclusionary) will play some role in the decision-making process. Certainly, many of them contributed, albeit with different impacts, in my own college decision. </p>
<p>The admission rate for Asians at top universities and colleges is generally lower than all other ethnic groups, including whites. Could there be reverse discrimination, particularly when their “stats” may be higher as a group? Hard to say. It has been argued that there are less Asian athletes and that Asian applicants often tend to be weaker in the “soft” aspects of their application (i.e., extracurriculars) even though they may be strong academically. Of course such subjective arguments were made when quotas were placed on the admission of Jews to Ivy League schools 50 years ago. Unless there is explicit discrimination or preference (as at UMichigan for certain minorities), I think racial preferences or quotas are hard to prove particularly in an era when private colleges use so many criteria to increase student diversity. Moreover, as mentioned earlier in the thread, a college may value an applicant who is a male dancer regardless of race or ethnicity. Moreover, Asians who are the first in their family to attend college or are financially/educationally disadvantaged (e.g., growing up as a child of a restaurant worker in Chinatown) may get a boost in admissions for socio-economic diversity reasons rather than for being Asian.</p>
<p>Swarthmore seems to be an exception among LACs; its percentage of Asian students is significantly higher than that of Williams’, Amherst’s, and Middlebury’s. (Wellesley is, as pointed out, a special case.)</p>
<p>^ Swarthmore, for some reason that is perhaps historical, is exceedingly popular among Indian-Americans, who are correctly classified as Asian-Americans.</p>
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Imagine what releasing that data would do. Perhaps incite demands for a Proposition 209 all over the country causing the long-awaited demise of race-based AA.</p>
<p>I have no comment about the specific’s of Amherst’s admission policy. The more general issue is discussed on the College Admission Forum in the recurrent FAQ thread, now in its eighth iteration, </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/927219-race-college-admission-faq-discussion-8-a.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/927219-race-college-admission-faq-discussion-8-a.html</a> </p>
<p>where participants discuss what is known and what is not known about the general issue. </p>
<p>Good luck in your applications.</p>
<p>i was an asian male who attended divoh in september. there were around 90-100 kids there who attended divoh, and there was at most five asians there. but i think being asian does not hurt as much at LAC’s as it does at top research universities. when i was walking around amherst and meeting the people, the only asians i met were my host and a friend from high school.</p>
<p>I know this post is late, but how many Asians do you think applied to DIVOH?</p>
<p>Sorry, how can there be any advantage to applying at Amherst or similar LACs as an Asian? They may not be as greatly represented at LACs as at some research universities, but Asians are by no means at all underrepresented there. </p>
<p>Asians as a percent of the U.S population: 4.8% (Source: 2010 US Census)</p>
<p>Asians as a percent of the Amherst class: 11%
Asians as a percent of the Williams class: 11%</p>
<p>This is just a small sample of LACs. But as you can see, Asians are represented twice their proportion of the US population. Perhaps they are not as overrepresented as at some research universities, but they are by no means underrepresented. </p>
<p>One could argue that the white, non-hispanic student (59% of the Amherst class versus 63.75% of the US population) is slightly underrepresented, and multiracial students (2.9% of the US population versus 5% of the Amherst class) are overrepresented. </p>
<p>But I digress. Asian students are not underrepresented at most LACs.</p>
<p>What matters is not whether Asian students are statistically overrepresented at top LACs, but whether they are TREATED as URMs (even if less U than other segments of the population). Many Asian applicants are academically equal or superior to comparable white applicants, so schools don’t have to worry about balancing out their overall stats. Asians are not enough overrepresented that they pose a perceived “danger” like at the UCs, so most LACs are happy to accept Asians and increase their percentage of “students of color” while simultaneously maintaining a high median SAT.</p>
<p>To the Amherst admission committee, “diversity” means more than meeting quotas. </p>
<p>Really.</p>