<p>um.. Just wanna ask how much harder it will be for an asian to get admitted by harvard.
Is it the same if i am a Japanese, Indian, Chinese, or Korean?
THXXXX!!!</p>
<p>Let me be politically incorrect, being asian does put you against others competitive asians. If you want it, work harder. You are better off if you were AA, hispanic or American Indian as competitive pool is smaller. But life is not fair, so you have to live with it. If you are a girl in hardcore math and science (other than biology), you improve your chances too.</p>
<p>I disagree that being Asian places you in competition with other Asians. There is no quota for any race in Harvard Admissions. Though Harvard does practice affirmative action, it does not restrict admissions of another race or put them in a different pool of consideration. </p>
<p>The system is pragmatically holistic- it may not be perfect, but it’s not that bad either. The notion that Asians are placed at a disadvantage by the system is a common and recurring myth that has absolutely no statistical or factual basis. So do well, and don’t worry about the rest. It’s mostly out of your hands anyway.</p>
<p>its a long and hard journey. long and hard.</p>
<p>I don’t think it matters whether you are Chinese, Japanese, or Korean.</p>
<p>
- Even if a single seat is allocated due to this - in mathematical game theory - it is zero some game thus a seat has to be taken from someone. </p>
<p>Every action has a reaction associated with it. But so are prefernces to legacy and sports that take away seats too. Harvard adcoms are building classes and not focusing on taking bookwarms. Life is not fair, so suck it up.</p>
<p>I’m Asian too… and I think, HingOn, that our race is doomed to suffer the “stereotype” that Asians are typically “quiet” and “into math” (which applies to be for the second category). Anyhow getting to Harvard even as a minority is no small defeat. So let’s stop worrying and start cracking :)</p>
<p>Op, you need to evaluate where you stand amongst your local group
of students and then get a more granular view in your geographic
region. Its probably lesser competition outside of the Maryland
tri-state area, New England region, Texas and California where
the levels of achievement despie racial background is significant.</p>
<p>Gryffon, though I have learned that every single peer I have met
has a significant talent and/or achievement, the quantity of achievements
seem order of magnitude different for at least one school district that I
am personally aware of between the caucasian and asian admits in the
earlier 2 years.</p>
<p>Even inside Harvard it is painfully apparent that Asian (origin) peers own the
math and science courses with a few exceptions. That does not imply there
are no asians doing badly - just that the top end of the curve seems to be composed
of lesser of other races given the % of admits.</p>
<p>Harvard can do as it wishes. However, OP you won’t know unless you apply. Go for it.</p>
<p>I am an Indian, and I feel that as long as you do your best you will be fine - regardless of race. I know that sounds cliche, but it is a sound theory. As someone mentioned before, it is a myth that being Asian is a hindrance. Believe in yourself and you will do well; if you let nonsense notions like these trouble you, you will not be able to perform to the best of your ability!</p>
<p>“There is no quota for any race in Harvard Admissions… it does not restrict admissions of another race or put them in a different pool of consideration.”</p>
<p>How do you know this? I’m curious.</p>
<p>I think that the reason why Harvard is so competitive for asians is because of the typical stereotype. I can almost assure you that over 50% of asian parents strive for their children to be world-famous researchers or classical musicians. And thus, many asians that are victim to this parenting tend to portray themselves in this manner in the application process. Thus, if you try to clearly distinguish yourself as a person who isn’t following this stereotype, you actually are at an advantage rather than a disadvantage.</p>
<p>Bottom Line: It’s harder; it’s fair; nothing you can do about it.</p>
<p>To echo some of the comments- it is much, much harder to get into Harvard and Princeton and the other ivies if you are Asian. You will be competing with the other Asians in the pool exclusively. Harvard, Penn and Columbia allocate about 25% of the class to Asian applicants while Dartmouth and Princeton cap it around 10-12% historically.</p>
<p>There was an article in US News or Newsweek in the late 1990s or early 2000s that described how much higher the academic qualifications were for accepted Asian applicants to the ivies- I think a former admissions officer said SAT scores above 1500 were fairly routine among Asian applicants to Penn and they had a similar chance of acceptance as URMs at 1300. I’ll try to look for the article if it’s on the web at some point.</p>
<p>If you read this thread and the posts thereof, you have committed a ThoughtCrime™. Please report to the nearest Gulag for your shovel and beet ration card.</p>
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</p>
<p>This is not echoing any previous comments, and I believe it to be completely untrue. Being an Asian may not help you, but it will not force your application to meet standards that other applications are not also expected to meet.</p>
<p>Being Asian places the applicant in direct competition with other Asians for the limited number of spots in Harvard undergraduate class. As a whole, the Asian applicant pool tends to have higher standardized test scores and class rank than other racial groups. Ask a Harvard admissions officer, and they will tell you that Asians are accepted at lower rates than whites because they are less likely to be legacy students and recruited athletes. But fear of lawsuits is one reason why most elite colleges no longer publish admissions data by race. </p>
<p>Contrary to a prior post, the Asian quota at Harvard is roughly 18%. Other schools have different quotas: MIT and Stanford are capped out at 25%. Yale is about 13% These numbers don’t change much from year to year. Graph Harvard’s Asian percentage for a decade or more, and you will see that the numbers barely move–perhaps a slight tick upward. The same applies for most of the other Ivy-level schools. There are two notable exceptions:</p>
<p>1) Princeton - Since Jian Li filed his discrimination lawsuit in 2006, the number of Asian students enrolling at Princeton has rocketed from about 13% to 20% of freshman. Several hundred Asian students at Princeton should thank Mr. Li for his help.</p>
<p>2) Penn - In recent years, Penn appears to be making an effort to accept more highly qualified Asian students. This year, Penn is 26% Asian, up from 19% a decade ago. </p>
<p>The overflow of rejected Asian applicants has yield a bonanza for elite colleges that have decided not to enact strict racial quotas. Caltech, whose applicant pool overlaps heavily with MIT, is about 40% Asian. Duke is now 25% Asian, and rising fast. Other schools, such as Johns Hopkins (26%) and Emory (31%) are exploiting the fact that highly-qualified, Ivy-Reject Asian students need to go to college somewhere.</p>
<p>These are stunning numbers, but point to the obvious fact that Asian students are applying in droves to the top colleges, but get accepted at lower rates than their white peers.</p>
<p>The bottom line is this: The top schools generally will not allow their base of whites to drop below 50% of the student population, because whites in general do not feel comfortable in an environment where they are no longer in the majority. Witness what has happened to the University of California in the past decade. White student yield has dropped from 55% to about 40% in the last decade as their numbers fall below below the magic 50% at 6 of the 9 undergraduate campuses where Asians dominate. As a result, the UC Regents are going to impose lower admissions standards starting in 2012 in an attempt to pump up the white admissions numbers.</p>
<p>At all of the elite colleges, the large number of Asian applicants threatens to upset the delicate racial student balance the colleges need in order to maintain their yield, selectivity and status. That is why Asians need to meet the highest standard in college admissions.</p>
<p>Yes, it is harder to get into the elite schools if you are Asian.</p>
<p>The elite schools have more qualified applicants than they can accept. It isn’t so much that they have different standards for each ethnic group, it is that they can hand pick from their pool of all applicants who meet their standards. One of the goals of an elite college is to build a diverse class so you have an advantage if you are an under represented minority and you have a disadvantage in you are an over represented minority.</p>
<p>I personally am looking forward to the day when admissions are race-blind, but I don’t think that will happen anytime soon.</p>
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<p>Nicely put.</p>
<p>Since race is a part of the diversity criteria, being Asian will not help. That being said, it’s not an excuse to not try your best. Good luck!</p>