<p>Hi, I'm an international student applying for enrollment at Harvard (from England).</p>
<p>From what I've seen/read/heard/gathered, its supposedly a "bad" (or at least disadvantageous) thing to be Asian due to colleges' pursuit of ethnic diversity + the fact that Asians score very highly in tests. Is this true? I'm assuming it is. Does this mean that, for example, a 2300 on the SAT would be less impressive simply because of my ethnicity?</p>
<p>I was wondering then, would it be a good thing for someone to be a non-stereotypical Asian Ivy League applicant? E.g. (massive generalisation) play a sport, haven't played piano since the age of 2, didn't join Maths club etc? </p>
<p>BQ: Is an international, eclectic background (first-gen immigrants, lived in 3 countries) a good thing or irrelevant?</p>
<p>Hello Moonpie1! I understand your concern and hope I can help with some information :)</p>
<p>Let’s remember that schools want to maintain a set number of people of different ethnicity in their undergraduate class. Harvard has consistently maintained around a 20% Asian student body. However, this doesn’t mean we (Asians) are discriminated against. I remember a post earlier on the discussions thread that showed that acceptance rate by ethnicity, including for URMs, was about the same as the acceptance rate for the whole group. Now, this also hints that we are usually compared with other Asians for admissions and as you know, competition is stiff amongst Asians especially in academics… This is where your question comes in. How do you stand out?</p>
<p>Typically, the reason why piano and math club don’t stand out, is not because you are Asian. It’s because many people don’t go anywhere with them, White, Black, Asian alike. However, how many people play multiple sports on a varsity level? How many people can successfully play not only piano, but four or five other instruments? It’s all about the amount of time you put into something. Sure go ahead and play the piano starting at the age of two. But if you are playing from that early, college admissions would like to see some international recognition for sure. Play the stereotypical Asian sport of tennis? Go ahead and continue with it, but place at state to show that you truly are an athlete. At the end of the day, the way to stand out is by excelling in anything you do. You can be an anomaly, but being bad at being different is a lot worse than being better than everyone who does what you do.</p>